The Scorpion's and the Flower's Freedom
by Millenium Ring
Summary: Ordered by the leader to scope the activities of a mysterious village, Sasori is unexpectedly captured by the natives. From Tsunade's order, Sakura and her team are sent to investigate the bizarre disappearance of many townsfolk.see story for full summary
1. Chapter 1

**SUMMARY:** Ordered by the leader to scope the activities of a mysterious village, Sasori is unexpectedly captured by the natives. From Tsunade's order, Sakura and her team are sent to investigate the bizarre disappearance of many townsfolk. Plans go awary when Sakura becomes the sinister village's next target.

**Authoress' Note: I have the whole of this planned out already, so there SHOULD be regular updates. It will probably turn into a SasoSaku fic by the end, but no promises. Sasori will definitely have a grudging respect for Sakura by the end of it though, thus paving the way for my epic fic which WILL be SasoSaku. Anywho...I know this chapter is short, but they will get longer the more into writing this I get. On a side note, any OOCness isn't entirely my fault, since it's my first attempt at a Naruto fanfiction. Please let me know what you think and if there's waaaay too much description in it. Thank you -. **

**p.s. I am it's going to be largely based on facts I have seen in the anime, since I only have quick summarised versions of each manga chapter courtesy of my older brother.**

**p.p.s. Reviews bring more chapters, MUCH faster...cough please review cough**

**Disclaimer: Oh come on, if I owned Naruto then the manga would take a century to complete and the anime...well it wouldn't have been created because of my lazy-ness :P. **

**Chapter 1**

The shuffling of a cloak across sand and stone was the only sound that could be heard, if indeed anyone was around to listen to the sound, as a small and hunched figure made its way across the desert in the Wind Country. The sun had been set for many hours now and the darkness allowed the bunched up person to move more stealthily to the Hidden Village located a few miles westward of Wind. The black cloak, coloured with a few red cloud shapes, engulfed the small figure and from a distance – or even up close – it was difficult to ascertain a gender to the being. Adorned on the small person's head was a straw hat and attached to that were wind chimes, which luckily remained fairly still on the journey.

As the desert began to flatten out more, a dense forest came into view. The trees were covered with dark leaves, nearly black in their colour, and clumped together so tightly it didn't look as though the slouched person would be able to fit in between each tree at all.

The hunched being grumbled in agitation, and it sounded like that of a savage beast only much deeper and more gravely. After such a sound any casual observer would be able to tell that the mysterious figure was in fact male. The small man shuffled as close to the trees as his form would allow, before muttering some quiet string of curses and then doing the most peculiar thing. His back appeared to have raised itself and then it opened up to reveal that the body was only a wooden puppet. The person inside hopped out and landed with the grace of a seasoned ninja next to the puppet.

His face was covered with a black cloth, which he quickly removed and placed inside the large puppet. What lay beneath this cloth was a mess of reddish hair and an angelic face that could easily fool anyone into thinking he was innocent. Except for his eyes, which appeared a warm brown at first glance, but held no real warmth inside them when looked at closely.

Sasori, for that was his name, closed his perfectly shaped eyes out of sheer irritation and spoke in a low, but decidedly pleasant voice, "This is already irritating me and I'm not even in the damned village yet."

He withdrew a scroll from within his black cloak and performed a simple hand seal to make the large wooden tool easier to carry around with him. He sighed in annoyance and started off at a calm pace through the dense wood to reach his intended destination: The Village Hidden in The Dark.

**_In the Leaf Village_**

"Sakura, Hinata and Ino, your new mission will be a C ranked one on the western border of the Wind Country." The 5th Hokage calmly ordered to the three young girls standing at attention in her office.

They all nodded in unison, although Hinata's response was a little nervous as opposed to confident like her current team members' attitudes.

"There have been reports of missing people – ninja and townsfolk alike – quite recently in the surrounding towns in the west of Wind. Your job is to find out who is responsible and what they are doing with these people. Do not attempt to engage if the cause is of hostile nature. Just come straight back with the information and, if need be, and ANBU squad will be dispatched to deal with the problem. I'm giving you three a month to complete your mission, so use your time effectively."

More nods of agreement and assent in the room. Sakura, Tsunade's apprentice, looked as though she wanted to say something, but was too afraid to speak up. Lady Tsunade motioned for the pink-haired girl to speak her mind, which she did rather rapidly, "Whatifweareattackedwhileonthemissionandhavenochoicebuttoengagetheenemy?"

"Oh for crying out loud, Sakura can you please ask me your question again without making it appear to my ears as some kind of stupid code?"

She 15-year-old took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and repeated her question clearly, "What if we are attacked while on the mission and have no choice but to engage the enemy?"

Tsunade crossed her arms and leaned back against her desk in thought, which left the three teenagers in total silence that seemed like it wanted to increase the girls' nerves ever-so-slightly. The older woman gave each Chunin before her a level stare, then said in her no-nonsense voice, "If that happens then you will have to defend yourself for as long as you can and then make a strategic retreat back to the Sand Village. Any more questions or can I send you on your way now?" Nobody spoke so the 5th Hokage took that as a sign that they were ready to leave. "Just remember you have one month to complete this mission, and it takes 3 full days to reach the Sand Village and a further 3 more days to reach the border towns of the Wind Country. Make sure to pace yourselves and rest when you need to. Good luck girls."

With those last words from their village leader, the girls departed from the office and ran to their homes to pack for a month long mission that, little did they know, would be the most dangerous one yet.


	2. Chapter 2

**Authoress' Note:** I am SOOO sorry for the long delay in an update! Please don't hate me. I've completed my FFVII fanfic, so now I can concentrate solely on this story. The next chapter SHOULD be out by Sunday night. I'll try to make the chapters longer and more detailed, but it's very trying on my mind sometimes. Anywho, a BIG thank you to my reviewers ( **overlordofnobodies, cute0anime0addict **and **NibiNoNEKO** ) and thanks to anyone who bothers to click on this story and read it. Huggles for all!

**Disclaimer:** If Naruto belonged to me, then why oh WHY would I write such things as FANfiction??

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Chapter 2

Sasori was starting to understand why this ninja village could be one hidden in the dark, for there was no light making its presence known in the thick forest that the Akatsuki member was attempting to traverse through.

Sasori was not afraid - not by a long shot - but he was apprehensive about travelling into potential ally/enemy territory without any back-up or knowledge on the local ninja. To him, this lack of a plan was foolish and time-wasting. If he had been more prepared then perhaps he could've already entered the elusive village and gained the support of the ninja there. As the situation stood, he could not afford time to prepare and just had to dive headlong into the mission.

It suddenly occurred to the rogue ninja that this kind of reckless mission was the exact same thing that his current partner would thrive in. Yet, for some reason that Sasori couldn't fathom, the blonde was not chosen and instead he himself was forced to partake in a trivial affair.

The Akatsuki, as if he needed to voice his irritation, grumbled to the darkness, "This had better be worth my time."

* * *

_**With Sakura**_

* * *

Green splodges - that was the best way for Sakura to describe the foliage that she and her team mates were passing by rapidly. All three young women had packed light for the trip, because they would be moving at a swift pace for three days straight before they actually earned a rest stop. It was always better to have a light pack with small essentials than a large one stuffed with an entire wardrobe of clothing. Sakura had to convince Ino of that very fact, naturally, but the blonde eventually took the hint and left behind her three large travel cases.

Nightfall was fast approaching, with the sun already hovering close to the horizon. Still, none of the three travelling female ninja made a decision to stop and rest. It had been discussed before they had left the village that they would only stop once it became too dark to navigate properly. If they only rested for a couple of hours then they could still make it to the Sand village by the third day of travel.

Sakura was still unnerved by the news that people, both ninja and civilians alike, were vanishing without a trace. It was not uncommon, but then again the numbers of disappearing people were normally not so concerning that a full-scale investigation had to be made.

Another thing that Sakura couldn't understand was why Leaf ninja were chosen for the task rather than sending Sand ninja. Surely local ninja would be more adept at gathering information on this mission than foreigners? However, an order was an order and Sakura intended to carry out the Hokage's order to the letter.

Sakura glanced up and took note of the number of visible stars overhead, which happened to be quite a lot. That fact, coupled with the inky blackness leaking into the sky fully convinced the pink-haired ninja that stopping for rest for the moment would be an acceptable – not to mention wise – decision. She glanced briefly towards the forest floor, eyes trained on locating a secure place to spend the night, but she couldn't find anything within the range of her own eyesight. She looked to her left where Hinata was running in sync with her own movements, "Hinata, can you use your Byakugan to look for a safe spot to stop?" It was a request as much as an order and the Hyuuga heiress complied immediately.

Hinata's pale eyes roved the trees and she raised her left-hand to point to the safest nearby place, "There's a small clearing up ahead and to the left a little bit."

Sakura nodded and all three girls rushed to their new destination, eager to retire and rejuvenate their exhausted limbs.

* * *

**_Back with Sasori_**

* * *

Sasori firmly believed that this forest wanted to aggravate him. The entire area was already coated in a thick blanket of perpetual darkness, but as the sun had set the puppet master could no longer make out his own hands in front of his face. The Akatsuki very much doubted that a torch or even a fire would prove ineffective at providing some kind of light source, because he had decided that no matter what he attempted he would not be able to cut a beacon of light in this pitch-black world.

He had so far managed to stumble over at least seven tree roots – as far as he could tell anyway – and his luck was not favouring him at that moment because his toe had just snagged on a rather large and jagged stone. The red-haired ninja cursed anyone whose name he could think of, the Leader being top of his list, but he stopped suddenly when he caught a whistling sound in the trees. The sound was faint, yet it seemed to have multiplied rapidly in the space of five seconds. It was then that Sasori realised he was being followed by some unknown ninja.

He didn't believe for a second that they were allies to him, for they moved in the trees in such a way that forced the Akatsuki to admit that they had him completely surrounded. Not only did Sasori not know how many enemy ninja there were, he also had no idea exactly where each one was. He couldn't defend himself with his puppets, for the trees were so tightly compacted and he couldn't see anything in front or around him. Instead, the puppet master resigned to simply trying to listen for the enemies and evade all forms of attack.

Of course, while he was mulling all these things over in his calculating mind, the ninja had already tossed a heavy net over his body, with weights attached to each corner that forced his body down onto the forest floor. The Akatsuki had no time to react and no way to defend himself, so he was utterly bewildered and peeved when he felt someone tug on the net to pull his body away from – what he deemed in his fuming mind – 'the capture site'.

* * *

**_At the rest stop with Sakura, just on the borders of the Fire Country_**

* * *

Sakura gazed at the night sky, loving the calming effect it had on her and how serenely the stars sparkled down from above. Hinata had indeed chosen the perfect spot to spend the night, as there was just the right amount of trees for cover as well as a clearing to start a small camp fire.

The pink-haired girl turned her head slightly to one side when she heard her blonde friend mumble in her sleep about Shikamaru's laziness. A soft giggle escaped Sakura's lips and she filed away her friend's mutterings for a later date to embarrass her with them. Sakura could barely recall a time when things had been quite as peaceful as they were that very night and she dearly wished it would stay that way forever.

She sat up for a moment and thought of her old team-mate, Naruto, and his current training with Jiraiya. She missed the loud-mouthed ninja more and more each day and she couldn't stand waiting for him to return from his trip. He'd been gone for nearly two and a half years now; Sakura wondered if he'd be much different from how he used to be.

She snorted to herself quietly at the very idea of Naruto changing at all, "Probably not, knowing him."

Sakura knew that the blonde would be back soon, so they had to finish the mission soon.

"After all," she whispered to the trees around her, "I wouldn't want to miss the chance to welcome him home."

The young ninja lay back down on the soft grass and closed her eyes, promising herself that she'd complete this task before Naruto returned to the Leaf village.


	3. Chapter 3

**Authoress' Note:** Woah, I got 3 more reviews in the last chapter! Thank you oh loyal ones ( **NibiNoNEKO, cute0anime0addict **and** overlordofnobodies **) ! You guys make me smile and have allowed me to locate my muse! So the chapters will be frequent until that pesky muse vanishes again. By frequent I mean DAILY! MUHAHAHA!! Thank you to everyone who reads this. Those who don't leave reviews...you needn't be shy, I don't bite!

**Disclaimer:** If I owned 'Naruto' do you honestly think I would spend my time writing FANfiction? No...I'd make this particular story actually HAPPEN in the manga

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Chapter 3

The uncomfortable journey for the puppet master was not quite as long as he expected it to be, only confirming that these ninja were in fact from the Village Hidden in Darkness. The only clues that Sasori had which proved his captors had arrived at their intended destination, was the faint light that glowed up ahead to signal houses and the lack of sharp stones and twigs that assaulted his body.

On the way to the village, Sasori had been pulled roughly along inside the net – which he discovered sealed his chakra and had a nasty effect of preventing him from moving at all – and he had been scraped across far too many sharp stones, twigs, tree roots and goodness knows what else for it to be purely accidental. Bloody vindictively was more along the lines of how his captors had treated the Akatsuki member.

Of course, Sasori couldn't actually feel physical pain, but it was the principle of the thing.

With the lights gradually becoming more and more intense, Sasori was able to make out the shapes of individual houses and even a large building in the centre of the village which the S-Class criminal assumed was used by the village's Kage.

More details became clearer to the Akatsuki member as the ninja pulled him through a small gate that acted as the village entrance. For starters, his cloak was shredded a great deal at the edges - but that was only a minor problem. The main concern that tugged in his mind was the large, weighted net that held him trapped. He couldn't draw any chakra, nor could he actually even move his own body. If Sasori didn't know any better, he would think that the ninja had prepared in advance for his arrival by creating a special net for sealing puppets.

That last thought was like a painful fish-slap to the face for the puppet master. This village was on the border of the Wind Country. Therefore, they had to know of the Puppet Master Ninja technique and developed some method to counter it over the years. It would explain the net, but what Sasori couldn't understand was how they even knew he had a puppet body at all.

Unfortunately, none of this mattered in the grand scheme of things. Sasori couldn't do a single thing while he was bound inside the net and he already had a pretty good idea that the Darkness ninja were going to keep him bound.

The small group of four darkness ninja – for that was the number of ninja that had actually caught Sasori in the forest – drew close to a rickety looking wooden shack and shoved open the sliding door. The red-haired ninja suddenly missed the perilous forest floor, as the largest ninja of the group lifted and hurled Sasori's motionless body into the filthy room. They snickered to themselves and then slid the door closed again to engulf the room in nearly total darkness.

Sasori strained his eyes in the black environment to locate anything that could be of use to him in escaping – not that he could because they had left the net over his body – when he noticed many more puppets piled haphazardly in the tiny shack. All of them had identical nets covering them, which in Sasori's opinion seemed ludicrous because none of those puppets were able to move on their own anyway.

"It's a storehouse for puppets..."

He sighed in agitation and ran a list of things through his mind that he would undertake if he ever managed to escape the Village Hidden in Darkness. Number one on his list was to get revenge on the Leader someday.

**

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Morning with Sakura, Ino and Hinata

* * *

"Hinata, are there any enemy ninja in the area?" asked Sakura for the umpteenth time that morning. Honestly she was being far too cautious, but she knew from past experiences that danger could strike at any moment. Of course, this time it was simply paranoia for her pale-eyed friend gave her the same reply she had given every other time before.

"There's nobody nearby Sakura."

It was far too clear to be a normal day. Sakura had been anticipating at least a few bandits on the road, but nothing bad had happened to deter the three female ninja of their task. It was very peculiar and the pink-haired girl disliked the calm of it all immensely. The current peace was just a ploy for the fates to throw in something painful or dangerous later on when Sakura had fully let her guard down.

So naturally she was on high alert the whole journey to the Sand ninja village.

Ino had insisted that they stop and wait out a tiny sandstorm – so tiny it was barely kicking up sand grains – which greatly cut into the mission time that they had. Once the 'danger' had passed, the three teenagers sped across the desert at an alarming speed to make up for their time wasted.

Sakura so badly wanted to get this pointless mission over with so that she could wait for Naruto to return from his travels, hence her constant nagging for Ino and Hinata to 'move their butts in gear' every time the pink one felt that they were falling behind her too much.

They had about an hour or so before they reached the Sand village, so Sakura slowed her pace down a little bit to allow her team mates to catch their breath once more.

The pink-haired ninja gave her friends an irritated expression when both of them stopped running and started taking deep breaths. She knew that they all needed a rest and a short break from running so fast, but she didn't realise that both of them would be so tired.

"Why are you both so out of breath?"

Ino glared slightly at Sakura, swallowed a mouthful of air and then straightened up, "We're both 'so out of breath' because we've been running non-stop since that stupid sandstorm hours ago! What's with you forehead? You're acting like a stuck-up bi-"

Hinata slapped her hand over Ino's mouth before the blonde could finish what she was saying. The white-eye looked humble when she tried explaining to Sakura that running at a really fast pace for a long time just wasn't an easy thing to do.

The Hokage's apprentice nodded in understanding and declared that they would stay put for half an hour, then continue to the Sand village.

"Don't worry, girls! Once we get there we can sleep the whole day away!" Sakura punched the air for emphasis on her last word and both girls smiled at this bit of good fortune.

**

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Hidden Darkness Village puppet storehouse

* * *

Sasori recalled, with a large amount of annoyance, that the mission he had been sent on would not be over in at least a month's time, which meant that nobody would be coming to check that he had completed the mission until a next month. Furthermore, he'd be stuck in the blasted puppet storehouse all alone for an entire month!

His eyes scanned the room for anything that could occupy his time and abruptly halted on a small pile of puppets to his right. The Akatsuki couldn't be sure, but he could swear that these particular puppets were…more human than the others. They were nothing like his Kazekage puppet – which used to be a human. They looked like him in a way. Their clothes were that of villagers from the Wind Country and their faces looked quite alive.

Sasori squinted as much as he was able to and tried to work out just what they were. He could see lines on various parts of their visible skin, clearly showing that they could be pieced together like puppets – like he could. They had blank expressions to their faces and they didn't move or make sounds. If they were humans turned into puppets like him, then they would at least be conscious and talking. Yet they did not.

Could it be something that the Darkness ninja did? Maybe they turned people into puppets and then stored them here for a later use? What if they had plans to use him too?

"Well I won't let them." The red-haired ninja whispered with conviction.

He only whispered the words because he could hear movements on the other side of the door, followed by a pair of the large Darkness ninja opening the sliding door and slinging a few of the nearby puppets over their shoulders. One of them turned to give him a look, so Sasori remained perfectly still to make them believe he was an ordinary puppet. The small ploy appeared to work when both men left the storehouse and slid the door closed once again.

Their presence left the Akatsuki member frantically thinking of an escape plan; he didn't want to find out first-hand what actually happened to the puppets that were taken out of the room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I wouldn't write this if I OWNED Naruto. It'd be a side-story that occurred if I DID own Naruto, which I don't. I DO own the idea behind this story and the Darkness village, Darkness ninja and the Yamikage.

**Authoress' Note:** Apologies for the lateness of this chapter. I was bogged down with english literature coursework, theatre studies practical exam...and the stress that is my rubbish life. So this chapter is longer than the others and hopefully I will make all chapters this length or longer in the future. The next chapter will be up by Monday evening, that's a promise. Please enjoy this chapter and leave a review after you read it. Also, quick note: I know vague bits of Japanese, so my Kage for the Darkness village is called 'Yamikage'. However, this is possibly incorrect, but I have no way of knowing for sure. Do ignore my rubbish-ness when it comes to Japanese terminology.

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Chapter 4

Sakura gazed at the sweltering hot desert with distant eyes. She wasn't directly looking at the scenery, but she was in fact deep in thought. She knew that when Naruto returned, the both of them would be searching for Sasuke once more. She had not idea what they would do once they found him though; he made it clear that he didn't want to go back voluntarily. She didn't want to hurt Sasuke, but it wasn't because she still had a crush on him. Her crush was long gone and now she just wished to rescue her friend and team mate. The longer he stayed with Orochimaru, the less likely the chance that he would be still be alive when she and Naruto found him.

"Oh Sasuke…" she whispered quietly, sadly.

Automatically she lifted a heavy hand up to brush some droplets of sweat off of her forehead. Sakura knew that she could never love Sasuke anymore, but she would rather die than let Orochimaru steal Sasuke's body! The mere thought of the snake sannin using Sasuke's body for his own sickened her to the core.

Sakura curled her hands into fists and frowned, "I won't let it happen. Naruto and I…we'll save you Sasuke. You belong with us…" she hissed, still quietly, but with anger instead.

The pink-haired ninja blinked back any unwanted tears, glanced briefly at the sun to check its position, and then hollered to her other two team mates, "Let's go people! The Sand village is only 30 minutes away!"

Her companions groaned but complied and all three young women once again trudged through the sand to reach the Sand village, where they would be spending at least a day and night there.

* * *

**_In the puppet storehouse, Darkness village_**

* * *

Slowly, but surely, the red-haired puppet master was going insane – or at least more insane than he already was. Each time the door opened he watched a few ninja carry out puppets, and he was only counting down the minutes until he would be taken too. The number of puppets in the building was decreasing at a rapid rate and before long Sasori was the only 'puppet' left in the store house. One of the darkness ninja slid the screen door all the way open, walked in and looked in every corner for more puppets to take.

The bulky man grunted, "Looks like the only one left is this thing. Guess it'll do."

The large man approached Sasori and took a hold of one corner of the net still covering the puppet master. He tugged on the net and roughly began to pull the red-haired ninja out of the storehouse and into the village streets.

Sasori let his eyes remain still, but he took in everything he could and stored the information for a later use. From what he could assume, he was being taken to the Kage's building. He took note of the fact that the ninja here were few in number and he couldn't locate too many normal villagers. Ahead, he could see the rest of the darkness ninja hauling the other puppets towards the Kage building and entering it via a secluded entrance in the side. The Akatsuki member knew that they were plotting something huge because of their collection of puppets, but he had no idea what the plan was yet. Perhaps being taken inside would allow him to work out the motives of these ninja and possibly find a way to escape. He hoped so…

After a good ten minutes Sasori was pulled into the Kage's building and then dragged carelessly up a flight of stairs. With the amount of times his body had been bashed against rocks, roots and steps the puppet master didn't doubt he looked like hell. There were probably lots of scratches and cracks on his puppet body and his cloak was most likely in need of a sewing job. More work for Sasori once he returned back to the base. If he ever did that is.

His journey up the jagged stairs ended not long after it began and his captor pulled him into a large chamber where the other puppets were also held. He dumped him at random and then left the room, leaving Sasori squashed against some quite hideous looking old man puppet.

"The least they could have done was prop me up by the wall somewhere…" he grumbled quietly and closed his eyelids to block out the sight of the repulsive puppet.

That's when he heard voices from down the hallway he had just been dragged through and they sounded gleeful, "I heard they're sending for some Leaf ninja to investigate the disappearances. The Lord Yamikage has given the order to capture and change the ninja when they get within our borders. I can't wait!"

Another excited voice spoke up, "Apparently they're all girls, so they had better be pretty! Not like those ugly villagers we had to change."

Sasori could tell they were the voices of men, but he cared more about the little piece of information they had just handed to him by accident. If the ninja were from the Leaf village, then perhaps he had some chance of escape. They wouldn't know his identity, so he could easily persuade one of them to take the net off of his body and then he could escape without ever being noticed. The idea wasn't perfect, not by a long shot, but at least he had some hope for gaining freedom from these freaky ninja and their bizarre village.

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**_At the Sand village_**

* * *

"Ah, we made it! Cool bath here I come!" Ino exclaimed while she darted for the nearest bathhouse in the village.

Hinata perked up at the mention of a bath and turned to her team leader, "Um…Sakura, would it be okay if I went too?"

Sakura smiled at her friend and nodded her head, "You go do what you need to. I have to inform Gaara…um I mean the Kazekage that we've arrived here."

The pink-haired ninja watched her friend take off after Ino, and then she sighed heavily and marched with barely any energy to the Kazekage's building. There were a couple of ninja guarding the entrance, but they didn't give Sakura any problems when she quickly showed them the mission documents Tsunade had given her. She walked through the corridors and up some stairs, all the while noticing that this building was identical to the one in the Leaf village.

"I guess they had the same architect…" she giggled softly at her own words, gaining odd looks from passers-by.

Her feet eventually carried her to the office of the Kazekage and she knocked once on the door. A gruff "enter" was the only response she received, so Sakura turned the door handle and pushed the stone door open. There sat at his desk, with all the Kazekage robes draped over his too small form, was Gaara. He appeared busy with some important looking documents, so Sakura chose to remain silent and wait for him to notice her instead.

Without even looking up he impatiently demanded, "What do you want? I'm busy at the moment so you'll have to come back later."

Sakura smiled slightly and then decided it was time to talk, "I guess you must be really busy if you don't even look up at the person who enters the room."

Gaara halted in his writing and looked up at Sakura, surprised to find it was her who had entered his office. She was smiling so he assumed her words were light-hearted and not meant for offence. He stood up and moved to the front of his desk, still shocked that the pink-haired girl was there.

"What are you doing here?" he finally blurted out.

Sakura withdrew her documents and held them out for Gaara to take. His blue eyes read over what each document had written on it, and then his face seemed to take on a darker expression. He gave them back to Sakura and then turned to his desk to find something – Sakura had no idea what though. When he faced her again he had a crudely written note in his pale hands.

"This arrived an hour ago from the western borders of our nation. It's from the leader of those who are responsible for the missing villagers. He calls himself the Yamikage. He's declared war on all the ninja nations, and Wind is first on his list."

Sakura was now confused, "Why are you telling me this though?"

"I'm telling you because the letter also has a small note at the bottom, which warns us that if the ninja from the Leaf village continue on their mission he will dispatch many of his ninja to wipe out this village. So I can't let you go there. It would be dangerous and it would only start more problems for my village."

Sakura was about to protest, but then she remembered that Gaara was the Kazekage and what he said had to be obeyed. So she nodded and then turned swiftly on her heels to leave the room and the whole building. She ran to find her team mates and told them that they had to end the mission early. Ino could be any happier and Hinata seemed relieved. Both girls went off to celebrate this good news while Sakura herself sat by the entrance to the Sand village.

"I should be happy that I'll be going home soon. I'll get to wait for Naruto and then see him when he gets back. Then we'll both search for Sasuke again. So then why don't I feel happy? I didn't really want to do this mission and it's dangerous to even consider continuing it. I just have this feeling that I should go to that village…like someone's waiting there…"

Sakura went back to the inn that Ino and Hinata had found earlier and then she packed up her things. She wrote a quick note informing her friends that she wanted to get back to the Leaf village straight away, and then she picked up her bag and quietly left the Sand village. The direction of her footsteps, if someone were to glance at them and follow them, was westward.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing except the plot idea, the Darkness village and ninja, and the Yamikage and Shinji. All else belongs to the respective owners...otherwise I'd so make this part of the actual storyline.

**Authoress' Note:** OMG I love my reviews soooo much right now! Thank you everyone for the lovely words for the last chapter! And the one before too...which I carelessly forgot to mention in my previous chapter. So my thanks go to:

**cute0anime0addict; SpeedDemon315; aznkitty180; Kitty; Dria-Chan; VampireArgonian92; overlordofnobodies; NibiNoNEKO** and **applefreak.**

Thank you all! Please enjoy this chapter! I'm proud of the detail and things are certainly going to get interesting in the next chapter. I hope this one is as well Please review once you've read it, I just adore feeback!

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Sakura staggered to her feet for perhaps the sixth time that afternoon. Her feet were aching and her head was throbbing from the constant light of the sun. On top of her physical pain was also her irritation with her own mind. Although she knew the direction that she needed to head, she had no idea where exactly she was supposed to be to reach one of the villages on the border of the Wind country. To make her suffering worse, the pink-haired ninja was fairly sure that she had moved off the route she had mapped out in her own mind.

"Why does every single thing in the stupid desert look like sand?!"

She pulled at her hair in frustration and in the process tore some pink strands out in her tightly closed fists. With a groan and a sigh, Sakura continued at a sluggish pace to reach where she hoped the outskirts of the Wind country lay.

* * *

**_Darkness village, Yamikage's manor_**

* * *

Sasori's mind was calculating the many different strategies he could employ to make a quick getaway from the terrible place, and the odds that any of these plans would actually work. So far his only options were: let the Leaf ninja distract the Darkness ninja and run very fast when their backs are turned; or kill all of the Darkness ninja when the Leaf ninja arrived and distracted them.

Both ideas were appealing to the puppet master, but unless he was freed from the net that bound all puppets, he would never be able to carry the plans out.

* * *

**_Somewhere near the western border of the Wind country_**

* * *

"What's with this heat? I feel like I'm going to melt on the sand, make a puddle and then evaporate because it's just too hot!"

Sakura was about close to giving up on the weather, the sun and the mission. She had no idea what was driving her to even bother with the mission, but she wanted to. She wanted to find out where the missing people had gone. She needed to be there…she just felt drawn to the west.

She smiled wryly at her own thoughts, "I guess that means that no matter what, my feet will take me there."

Her three day journey didn't seem as long as she first expected; she had only been travelling for about six hours and she could tell the border was close by.

Sakura stopped to catch her breath, rocked back on her feet and collapsed in a tired heap on the sandy ground below. She doubted that she could move any further and she could now feel nightfall approaching once more. Up ahead her weary eyes caught sight of a forest shrouded almost entirely in a dark blanket.

"It doesn't look to welcoming, but anything is better than this awful heat."

After she hauled her exhausted body up onto her feet, the teenager carefully approached the entrance to the foreboding forest. Up close, it didn't look any better than it did from before, but the Leaf ninja desperately wanted some shade and a nice reprieve from the scorching sunlight.

She scanned the first few trees nearby for any signs of danger, but found none at all. With a shrug and a sigh of relief, Sakura stepped within the shadowy trees. All at once she couldn't see anything. No trees, ground or even her own body. It was a black void. She didn't even know which way she came in from. Except that she did, because she had only taken one single step. The pink-haired girl chuckled slightly and took a step back, instantly returning her sight and all over senses as she did.

"That place is freaky. I don't know how anyone or anything could live in there." She put a finger to her chin in thought, "Maybe a bat…they have sonar."

One of the trees close to her left rustled, but no wind was blowing to cause it. Sakura took out a kunai and raised it calmly in front of her body as she searched the foliage for an enemy attack.

Minutes passed by and nothing else happened, so she allowed her guard to relax a little bit.

"Must have been my imagination." She muttered quietly.

"Oh I wouldn't say that you imagined anything at all…little girl…"

The voice was quiet, close to her and very creepy. All things that made Sakura jump out of her skin when she was still a Genin. Yet she was no longer a little 12 year old. Now she was a few years older, more experienced in combat and a Chunin. With reflexes that Tsunade had helped her perfect, Sakura pivoted on her right foot and faced her enemy: a man clothed in all black, except for his eyes and headband. He was taller than Sakura, about 2 feet more, and he looked physically more powerful than her too. Add to that his ability to sneak up on her without her ever knowing, this foe was not one to toy with.

Before the enemy ninja could launch any kind of attack, Sakura had already sent chakra into her right fist, which was aimed directly for his chin. Unfortunately for the pink-haired ninja, the man was too fast and too prepared. Plus, he had back-up in the form of seven other ninja. He evaded her well-aimed punch – barely – and then kicked her kunai out of her loosened left-hand. Sakura had barely blinked before his allies threw a chakra binding net over her entire body, preventing the girl from using any of her chakra at all.

She reached for another kunai to cut the net, but one of the ninja behind her smashed her around the head with a metal pole, which knocked her unconscious.

* * *

**_A prison cell, Darkness village, close to the Yamikage's manor_**

* * *

"Ouch, my head's killing me."

Sakura gently massaged her probably swollen and definitely bruised head with her gloved hand. For some reason she wasn't able to hold her own against any of those ninja. They were too fast and seemed to be expecting her, like they were ready to ambush her the second she arrived. For that to be true, they would have to know that the Leaf village was sending any ninja to help the Sand village out…

Sakura slapped her forehead as realisation sunk into her skull, "Of course they knew I was coming. They were expecting for Leaf ninja to be investigating the area. Geez Sakura, you really made a mess of things this time. It'll take everyone at least three days before they even know I'm missing, and that's assuming that Hinata and Ino even leave the Sand village today." Panic took over the pink-haired girl's mind, "Oh man, I'm going to die."

* * *

**_With Sasori_**

* * *

"What was the point in moving me? The only change is the location…"

The Akatsuki member was at the end of his very thin rope. He couldn't take the silence or the boredom for much longer. He needed to leave so he could return to the Leader and tell him to have the whole village wiped out instead of asking for their assistance. Sasori still couldn't understand why he had to do this on his own; he would have been safer with someone else to back him up. If the puppet master didn't know any better, he would think that the Leader wanted him dead. These ninja did all seem to know how to handle puppets, extremely well actually.

"He better not have had my death planned for in this irritating place…"

Those same voices from before entered the corridor outside his currently occupied room, and Sasori instantly held still to listen to everything they said as they passed by. Only this time they weren't passing by. Instead, they were coming into the room and taking a few puppets with them as they talked. Sasori remained perfectly still when one of them picked him up using the net again, and he managed to catch a few sentences that they said,

"We'll use a couple of puppets to hold the girl down, and then you can do the rest Shinji."

The one called Shinji replied, while smirking, "She's such a pretty little thing, I'd hate for her to go to waste so soon. Do you think the boss will let us have some fun before we make her into a doll?"

The first voice, a big fat man holding Sasori's net, answered Shinji's question, "I'm not sure, but if you want we can ask the boss before we perform the technique. I bet he won't say no to the idea…"

Sasori ignored the rest of their conversation and instead focused on exactly where the ninja were taking him and the other puppets. Aside from himself, only two more puppets had been removed from the room and those also had nets on them – possibly to prevent any unwanted chakra entering them, but Sasori was entirely sure.

The corridor led down a long tunnel, and beyond that was a dark and mouldy wooden door. The man called Shinji opened this door and the walked through it with his friends following behind him. Passed the door was a series of stone walkways that filled a large, empty room. The walkways were above Sasori, below him and to either side as well. They were currently on one of the walkways and across from it was a large, cylindrical building made of black stones to blend with the surroundings. Torches lit up each walkway and Sasori hated the poor lighting by the end of the journey to the building.

There was a rusted old lock on the door and Shinji produced the key to it, which matched the lock rust for rust. When the click sounded, Shinji pushed open the door and they all filed in after him. Lining either side of the long room was a set of iron-barred cells. Some had living occupants – small children and crying women – while others housed blood-stains and body parts. Sasori didn't even bat an eye at them though, having been used to such things for years.

The cell that Shinji and the other Darkness ninja eventually came to a stop at was filled with only one person – a small, slip of a girl with pink hair.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Naruto or any of the characters, why the devil would I be writing this solely as fanfiction?? It'd be canon!!

**Authoress' Note:** Firstly, a big thank you to my readers, my reviewers ( **cute0anime0addict, anzkitty180, SpeedDemon315, Dria-Chan **and **WingedRegent** ) and all those who favourite and alert this story! It's you guys that make me smile each day . Secondly, I'd like to apologise for the time between chapters, but I had some work in college to catch up with and my end of year exams are coming up in a couple of weeks time. So I wrote an extra long chapter to make up for the wait that I know is killing someone somewhere! This chapter might have some errors in it, but I did write it at about 1am to nearly 3am in the morning, so it's not my fault entirely. Also, the small fight scene sucks so much because I just can't write them at all...which brings up a very good question about why I even chose to write a Naruto fanfic at all... Last note: some of my reviewers, and possibly readers too, were concerned that I might have Sakura raped. I'd like to clarify that this story will not go higher than a rating of 'T', nor would I ever write a scene of rape or even a lemon. I just don't like them and I wouldn't know how to write such a thing even if I ever, god forbid, wanted to write one. So...yeah there's me note for the start...now enjoy!!

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**Chapter 6 (all Sasori's POV)**

Sasori quickly flicked his eyes to the pink-haired girl's headband and noticed that she was a ninja from the Leaf village. It was proof that the Leaf ninja had come, but their mission had clearly been a failure. The girl looked to be the only one of her team left as well and she didn't even appear to be very useful. Sasori's chances for freedom were looking grimmer by the minute. As things stood, he had no hope of escaping the village and having each of the Darkness ninja systematically tortured.

The Akatsuki member unfocused his eyes once more and waited to see what his captors would do, or say, next. He'd now named each one of the three ninja as: big idiot one, big idiot two and big idiot three. He didn't care that he had learnt at least one of their names either; as far as he was concerned these people were barely above bacteria.

Big idiot one, otherwise known as Shinji, grinned wickedly and opened his overly large mouth, "Just dump the dolls somewhere and let's go ask the boss what he thinks." The others nodded and did just that – tossing the useless puppets on the floor near the cell and leaving Sasori in front of the cell bars.

They all marched back down the corridor they had come from and slammed the door shut once everyone was through it. Once the echoes of their voices had vanished, Sasori flicked his eyes once more to the girl in the cell, trying to work out how to make her take the net off him.

However, before he had a moment of silence to debate his options, the girl started to punch at the walls of her cell. His reddish eyes widened when he saw that her fists were bleeding, yet she still continued to hit at the stone walls. When it was clear that she could not make a dent in the stone, she lowered her hands to her sides, blood still seeping from the wounds.

"Damn it, what's wrong with my chakra?"

Sasori, not knowing what on earth she was talking about, merely remained silent and waited for her to do something else. When she pivoted around on her feet and lifted her battered hands to the bars, the puppet master forced his eyes to return to their unfocused state.

The girl seemed to be trying to bend the bars with her weak looking hands and arms and Sasori was beginning to wonder whether she was even sane at all.

"Come on, bend already!" she hissed between her clenched teeth. When nothing still happened to the metal bars, she gave up and sighed in defeat, "I guess I'm stuck in here after all. Those bastards must have put a barrier around this cell so I can't use my chakra." It was then that she noticed the puppets they had left, and in particular her eyes rested on Sasori's face, "Oh man, they left their creepy puppets in here too. I'll probably have nightmares for life."

The way her face revealed all of her emotions – fear, disgust, annoyance and despair – both amused and angered Sasori. For a ninja she was a fairly poor one. All ninja must be blank-faced and keep all emotions hidden from their enemies. Yet this girl from the Leaf village did the exact opposite. The Akatsuki member liked that he could interpret everything that she was thinking and feeling, just from her face. He rarely met anyone who did that anymore and the idea that this girl was soon to be made into an emotionless, soulless doll bothered Sasori quite a bit. He didn't care about the girl at all, but it would be a shame for one so full of feeling to suddenly…stop feeling altogether.

All that aside though, the puppet master still had to work out how he would convince the girl to take off the chakra sealing net. First things first though…

"Girl, take this net off me now."

Okay, so he would admit that that probably wasn't the best way of persuading the pink-haired girl to release him, but it's not like he wanted to be polite or kind to her. He just wanted to use her for his own gain, which involved her removing the blasted net.

The girl from the Leaf village blinked rapidly, as though she had only imagined Sasori actually talking to her, and then his words sunk in more clearly. Her eyes narrowed and she frowned. So she was angry with him now.

"Why should I do that? You're one of their puppets, so you'll probably just attack me once I get too close to you."

An audible and irritated sigh left the Akatsuki member's lips before he could contain it, and he closed his eyes for a brief moment to gather some of his remaining politeness. When he re-opened his eyes, the girl was still glaring suspiciously at him.

"Listen girl, if I were one of their puppets, why would they have a net over me, but none of the others? I am not a stupid doll. I am a prisoner, like yourself, and if you take this net off me now I'll free you in return. Understand now?"

Even though he had held back his anger, some still managed to seep through towards the end of his speech. It couldn't be helped anyway; it was an old habit that had stuck with him for years.

"Right, like I'll believe anything you tell me. If you are a prisoner like me, then why would they just leave you with the other puppets?"

"Simple…they're all morons."

She chuckled a little bit, a small smile on her lips.

"True, but still…"

"Do I honestly look like a puppet to you?"

At this the girl took on a thoughtful expression, her eyes focussing on his face and eyes to determine whether he was human or a mere soulless doll. Apparently, she had seen something that revealed he was human, or at least he looked it, and she smiled brightly with this revelation. Perhaps the very idea that she would be free was making her happy, but Sasori couldn't quite tell.

"I guess you're not a puppet after all. I still don't know if I should believe what you say, but I guess nothing else can go wrong if I give you the benefit of the doubt."

With her bright smile still in place, the pink-haired girl reached her bloody right hand forwards and pulled the chakra net off of Sasori's body. When it was fully off, the puppet master stood up from the stone floor and dusted off his torn and tattered cloak.

"Okay I helped you, so I guess now you can open this cell…up…" The girl's voice hit deaf ears, Sasori already walking away from her and towards the only door in the prison. "Hey! I thought we had a deal!"

The puppet master didn't even bother to look back at her or respond, he just raised his right hand to open the door instead. He was intent to escape from this village and the forest before anyone even noticed that he had gone, but he didn't know if he would be able to manage it all on his own. He couldn't really use his puppets in combat either, because these ninja knew a thing or two about them.

The door opened, but he didn't do that himself. Sasori was far too caught up in his thoughts to have noticed the faint chakra signatures arriving back at the prison door. It swung open and he jumped back towards the girl's cell. He recognised the people instantly as the big idiots from before. They, of course, took at least a minute to notice that Sasori was walking about and the net was on the floor. When they did though, shock was clear on their faces.

Shinji was the first to recover and take on a battle stance, with his feet set apart for balance, his left hand behind his back ready for using ninja tools and his right one in front of his chest with a kunai drawn. He gave a sidelong look to big idiot two, who quickly took out another capture net. Big idiot three stood next to number two, prepared to give him support if needed.

The Akatsuki member knew that if any of them caught him in the net he'd be finished, but without that net his odds would be in his favour completely. He needed some assistance. One quick glance to the pink-haired girl and he knew that his only chance for survival rested on her small shoulders. He needed her help.

Sasori silently slipped his Kazekage puppet scroll from within his cloak and released the puppet with a practiced speed that caught his enemies temporarily off guard, giving him an edge. He used the puppets secret ability and sent iron sand flying at the ninja to distract them, while he used another piece to snap the bars of the Leaf girl's cell door. When he was certain she was free, he concentrated fully on his opponents before him.

Shinji had disappeared from his sight, but big idiot two and three were still within range of the Kazekage's iron sand and therefore easier to dispatch of. With a skill that nobody else could boast about, Sasori performed a quick hand sign that allowed his puppet to create large spikes from the sand, and directed the puppet to fire the spikes at the pair of Darkness ninja who had been trying to feebly dodge the small shards of iron sand. They were impaled multiple times by the spikes, blood splattered all over the walls and floor of the prison, and the Akatsuki member took great satisfaction in knowing that the two had died in a very painful way.

He used the puppet to call back the iron sand, and then looked for the final big idiot – Shinji.

His ears picked up the sound of flesh being pounded, and he searched through the now dust-filled room for the location of the noise. He spun around to face behind himself and took in the sight of the pink-haired girl beating Shinji with her gloved fists, which he noted no longer bled.

When the girl had had her fill, in other words when Shinji had passed out entirely, she let go of the ninja's collar and watched with a small level of fascination as he crumpled to the floor. She dusted off her hands and smiled with a sickly sweetness at Sasori, who was now nearly apprehensive about freeing her. Her sudden strength against that Darkness ninja explained why she had tried to punch through her cell walls.

The Leaf girl walked up to the puppet master, still with that spooky smile on her face, and slapped him hard across his face. Luckily for Sasori, she didn't make any marks on his otherwise flawless cheek, because if she had done, she might have noticed that he was no longer just a normal human being after all.

Her smile vanished when he looked at her again, "That was for trying to leave without letting me out, you jerk! If those ninja hadn't come back, I don't know what would have happened to me! I don't think you understand the meaning of a bargain. I helped you get free, so you were supposed to return the favour!"

Sasori stood at his full height in front of the fuming pink-haired ninja, which wasn't a great deal taller than she was, and glared openly, "Shut up you little brat! I got you out of that stupid cell didn't I? So stop complaining."

"You're right you did free me in the end. Even if it was only because you looked like you needed my help, you still got me out of there. So…" the girl extended her left hand, "…thank you."

By the way her face was now shining with gratitude, and also with the very gesture of a handshake, Sasori could tell that she was way to forgiving and trusting to be a true ninja. If she was a ninja from the Sand village, they would have ironed out all of her stupid faults when she was still a little child. Still, Sasori was grateful that she was not from his old home; he couldn't afford to be recognised and have his only chance for freedom to be ruined.

"I don't want nor do I need your gratitude, little girl. I just require your abilities to aid me in escaping this irritating place. Once I'm far away from this pathetic village, I won't have to look at your stupid face again."

The girl frowned slightly and slowly pulled her dainty hand away from the puppet master. Honestly he didn't know what she expected from him, but he was never going to sink to that level of weakness by actually accepting her thanks for a completely selfish deed.

"I suppose I can accept those terms…even if you did just insult me."

Sasori didn't say anything to that, he merely sealed his Kazekage puppet back inside it's scroll and tucked the scroll up his sleeve once more.

The pink-haired ninja brushed past Sasori and headed towards the still open door, "Oh and by the way, my name's Sakura, not girl."

Sasori's only reply as he walked a little ways behind the Leaf ninja and out the door of the prison block was, "I don't care."

He just knew that this would be a bothersome mistake, but he also knew that he needed this girl…Sakura.


	7. Chapter 7

**Authoress' Note:** Sorry for the wait, and I know it's shorter than the usual chapter length, but I had to end it soon. In the next chapter I hope to develop their characters more, and get them both to have some mutual trust. Not yet though! This is kind of a filler and I wanted to do something cruel to them both as well. I tried a new thing out in this chapter: different points of view! The first one is Sakura's, then it's Sasori's. I love using "I" statements in things. Enjoy and please review, they make me smile and let me know how to improve. I love feedback, so please review .

**Disclaimer:** Note mine, so shut yer holes already! I'm just an obsessed fangirl...jeez!

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**Chapter 7**

Both captured-ninja-turned-escapees were now beyond the prison block itself as they crossed the room with the every-which-way walkways and platforms. They remained ever silent, neither one really wanting to talk to the other. Sakura had many questions for her freaky companion, but she didn't want to offend him and scare him away before they could depart from the Darkness village. She had to keep her manners and her wits about her.

Sasori, on other hand, was growing frustrated with the lack of enemy ninja; he wanted to hurt or maim someone a great deal, yet nobody had bothered to come and check on the prisoners. He found it both strange and unnerving. If he were the leader of a village, he would make it his top priority that any living prisoners be guarded thoroughly at all hours of the day. His prisoners would never be able to escape. Not that the puppet master ever needed to keep a person alive…once he captured someone he started adding the unfortunate ninja to his collection immediately.

The duo left the echoing abyss of a room behind and set foot, at last, in the corridor that led all the way around the inside of the Yamikage's manor. All they needed to do was follow it around for a few minutes until they found the stairs heading down. Then it was just a case of avoiding the Darkness ninja and escaping the eternally pitch-black forest - nothing to it really. The only problem that both of them now seemed to have was that their journey had been mostly absorbed with the walking through the rather short corridor which appeared to have no end to it.

* * *

_Sakura's POV_

* * *

_This corridor has no end! We've been walking for hours, with no trouble yet, and this stupid corridor just won't come to a finish. It's like we're trapped in a genjutsu or something, but that can't be possible because I would have noticed if we were…um…I think…_

_Oh great, I bet this is a genjutsu! And this jerk will probably say it's my entire fault for not noticing, even though he is probably a lot better at being a ninja than I am. He did, after all, break me out of that stupid prison cell. I couldn't even do that, which just proves how lame I am. Lady Tsunade would be so disappointed with me…_

* * *

_Sasori's POV_

* * *

_Why is this corridor longer than the last time I came through it? By my calculations we should have been out of this irritating place long before now. Something feels…off. If this is a genjutsu, then I'm blaming the annoying girl's presence on my lack of noticing. She's too loud with her footsteps and her breathing is getting on my last nerve. I thought she would be spending all of the time talking, but instead she's just breathing too much! Maybe I should correct that…_

_Damn I probably shouldn't do that after all. I need her alive so she can get me through this stupid village. I can navigate, but I need a human shield so I don't get caught in another net and the girl is perfect for that task._

_Unfortunately neither one of us will be leaving this village if we don't remove this annoying genjutsu and get out of this seemingly endless corridor._

* * *

_Normal POV_

* * *

Sasori stopped walking and glanced briefly at the pink-haired ninja beside him, "Girl we app-"

"It's Sakura."

The puppet master glared at Leaf ninja briefly, "Fine, Sakura, I think we're in a genjutsu. Do you have any idea what kind it might be?"

Sakura tapped her chin in thought and glanced both ways down the corridor that wouldn't end. Nothing seemed out of place, which suggested that the genjutsu was probably something that caused loops. With a satisfied smile she replied to her reluctant ally, "A looping genjutsu, most likely intended to exhaust whoever becomes trapped inside it."

The red-haired puppet-man nodded, "I thought it might be," Sakura opened her mouth to ask why he even wanted her to tell him, but he cut her off quickly, "so why don't we get rid of it now and move on?"

He raised his hands and formed a sign that would release the jutsu, which also involved sending some of his own chakra out into the genjutsu itself. Sasori's chakra was met with little resistance, so the genjutsu that the pair had been, alarmingly, caught in dissipated instantly.

At once the never ending corridor vanished and the continuous stream of doors on either side of it melted away like ice in a boiler room. At last the pair could see the stairs that led to the ground floor of the manor, and their next big step towards freedom. Sakura sprinted towards the stairs, leaping down them three at a time. Sasori was much more refined, being the mentally older of the two, and he glided down the steps like fog on a patch of grass – he made no noise and appeared to not even have touched a single step.

Sakura glared at Sasori's total lack of speed in his movements, "Hurry up! If you don't move faster we'll never be free." The pink-haired girl all but dragged her red-haired ally, even daring to reach out and almost tug his arm to make him move a second faster.

The puppet master pulled away before she could get the chance to carry through with the plan, and walked in front of the girl in utter silence. He closed his eyes and focused on any movement that could be coming from the other side of the wooden door, but nothing alerted his senses. He re-opened his eyes and slid the door to the side to create a small enough gap for both of them to fit through without attracting attention.

So far so good, as there were no Darkness ninja in the immediate vicinity, but Sakura knew that she had no luck at all when it came to danger; the second she stepped out of the building, she predicted that at least ten of the ninja would appear and gut her…or worse.

Sasori obviously noticed his companion's lack of progress, as his angry gaze pierced her very soul and split it apart into many pieces, creating a chaotic order within her own being: should she proceed over the step and risk triggering a trap, or should she just wait everything out inside the manor and hope the Yamikage himself does not arrive? Honestly, she would rather suffer than remain where the enemy leader could have free reign of her solitary self. He'd probably kill her in a heartbeat!

"Sakura, either you move now, or I shall leave you there for those Darkness nitwits to find you. In case you didn't realise, they had plans to change you into a lifeless doll, like those other puppets you saw in the prison." The pink-haired ninja's eyes focused on the puppet master's face, "Do you want that life or do you want to move on and escape?" He deepened his glare towards the girl, but it did nothing to sway her wandering thoughts.

Sakura had heard everything that Sasori had said, yet she could not erase the one thing she knew he had not meant for her to hear: concern. There was a slight sound of concern etched into his words at the mention of her becoming a 'lifeless doll'. He didn't know her, nor did he like her – she could tell straight away – however for some reason he was worried at the mere mention of her being made lifeless.

She took a small step, and nothing happened, so she took another much larger step. Now she was out of the safer zone and into the open air. If someone was plotting to attack either of them, now would be an ideal opportunity. Still nothing happened and the Leaf ninja felt more confident that nothing ever would. She grinned and strolled towards her ally, a huge smile plastered on her porcelain face.

"I guess I had nothing to worry about after all. Those stupid ninja must all be away somewhere else, which means we can escape much more easily than we first thought."

"..I suppose so…"

"Uh huh, and once we're out of this village we just have to navigate through a sightless forest! No worries at all! Smooth sailing!" Before Sakura could say any more predictable clichés, her stomach emitted a deafening rumble. She covered it with her arms and blushed as deeply as her clothes were, "I guess we should find some food first, huh?"

"Fine, but don't take too long or I'll leave on my own."

The girl nodded and skipped ahead to find any kind of food source. Luckily, someone had an artificial farm growing in their garden, with fake light providing what the sun normally would. Within the small garden, Sakura spied a few potatoes, carrots, fruits and turnips. She picked a couple of apples and some peaches, before she returned to Sasori's side once more.

"Here you go." The girl gave him an apple, "I hope you like apples, I'm afraid there wasn't a lot of food on hand anyway. This is okay though, isn't it?"

Sasori looked at the ripe fruit in annoyance, because for many years he had not needed food at all and now out of the blue some girl from the Leaf village was practically forcing him to eat again. As if he would eat something from that girl; even if he were human still he wouldn't.

He shoved the offending fruit back into the girl's smaller hands and folded his arms defensively, "Keep your stupid apple Sakura, because I don't want it. Besides, who said anything about my being hungry? You just assumed it."

"Hey mister-miserable, at least I eat something at every meal. You're wasting away into nothingness." His only response was a dark chuckle, "By the way, you never told me your name. Care to share now? It's only fair since I know everyone else I talk to."

Sighing, Sasori unfolded his arms and told her, just to shut the girl up, "My name is Sasori."

She smiled softly at that, "See? Now we both know each other!"

The Akatsuki member could only sigh once more and then stare into space while the little girl ate.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything except an adorable little chibi Kakashi badge. All else belongs to the respective owners, hence the FAN part of FANfiction.

**Authoress' Note:** Sooo sorry for my latenes. I tried my darndest to get this done at the weekend, but I saw the new Indiana Jones film on Saturday, which distracted me for three whole days! Then I had to contend with being utterly annoyed with my youngest sibling...egads she's a pain and a half. On top of all that, I'm supposed to be revising for my final summer exams next week. I WILL have the next chapter out by Sunday, I promised you all. So please do enjoy this one and let me know what you think in a review

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**Chapter 8**

Sakura munched her second peach in thought. Every now and then she snuck a glance at her ally, who was seated opposite her, as she tried to work out what she wanted to say. She was deeply curious about him, no doubt about that, yet she knew he'd try to dodge anything she asked him. Sakura knew only a few things: his name, he could use puppets and she could guess that he was roughly around her own age. She didn't even know what village he came from.

Plucking up some courage, which she had lots to spare of lately, she stared straight into his dark eyes, "Which village are you from Sasori?"

He glared back at her emerald green eyes, "That's none of your business."

Sakura was thankful her inner personality had nearly disappeared forever, otherwise she was pretty sure she'd have marched over to Sasori and punched him through the building he was leaning against. So, her anger settled on a nice, healthy twitch in her left eye.

"I just think it's unfair that you know where I'm from, since I'm wearing my ninja headband, but I don't have any idea about you." The pink-haired ninja took in her companion's clothing choice, hair style and facial structure with hopes of working out which ninja village he came from, but nothing really seemed similar to anything else she'd seen. His hair was like that of Gaara's, which led Sakura to believe he might be from the Sand village, yet she'd never seen anyone in that village wearing the clothes that Sasori was. Frankly, the young girl was baffled.

She huffed and looked away, taking in the village all around them. Sakura could guess that the night had long been over and day was once more upon them, because the darkness within the forest and the village wasn't quite as thick as it used to be. The torches and occasional pyres scattered about the village probably also provided some form of light against the blanket of dark. Sakura and Sasori had both sat nearby a small torch so that they could see more clearly than if they were to sit without a light source. Looking back on her decision now, Sakura supposed her real reason for wanting to sit by the torch was so she could keep a better eye on Sasori. After all, he really was a very questionable person. Plus, he didn't seem to have any hesitation with taking someone's life in a very violent and bloody way.

Looking back at her companion, Sakura took note of how pale his skin was compared to a normal person's. He almost appeared dead, but of course he couldn't be; he was moving and talking like a normal, living human being would. Something was prodding at the girl's mind, bidding her to listen to it. She knew that she'd missed something important with regards to her ally, yet she couldn't fathom what it could be.

With a shrug she dismissed that line of thought, choosing to instead strike up more conversation, "What do you think these ninja are trying to do here?"

Sasori was a little surprised that the girl had chosen to talk once again, but he was glad that she had dropped all questions about him. He closed his eyes in thought, trying to go over all the things he had seen and heard while being a prisoner among the other puppets. However, he couldn't recall anything of value. He opened his reddish-brown eyes and looked at the Leaf ninja opposite him, "I have no idea, but my best guess is that they plan for a large attack against someone. I saw a lot of puppets in their storehouses, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were to try and conquer all of the nations at once. With their strange techniques and brute strength, they could pull it off. The world wouldn't see an attack coming until it was already upon them, because they know next to nothing about these ninja."

There was no emotion in Sasori's voice, which disturbed Sakura somewhat. He certainly didn't seem concerned that these evil ninja could take over the world. That little ounce of knowledge about her companion had her thinking that perhaps he was someone less than honourable, but maybe a better person than the ninja of the village they were currently in.

Her other worry was what he had told her: they had an army ready for war. They were on the very border of the Wind Country, so they'd probably target it first. Sakura knew first-hand that there wasn't enough strength in Wind to stand against great numbers of enemies. So, they'd probably request help from the Leaf village, which would leave her home weaker.

The pink-haired teenager racked her brain for a solution, something that could be done before the fighting even began, but no plans formed in her mind.

"You look worried Sakura…why?"

Sakura glared at her ally, anger replacing her feelings of despair for a moment, "Of course I'm worried! If you're right, my home is in danger and so are all the other nations! Why are you so calm?"

He smiled at her, something that didn't radiate a speck of warmth, "I'm calm because I know that these ninja won't succeed. They have great numbers and lots of power, but they don't know much about how to fully manipulate a puppet. If they did, I'm sure they could have beaten the both of us back in that prison, because there were a couple of puppets left next to your cell. These ninja need preparation time and the element of surprise to gain victory. How else would they have captured us in the first place? Their only true skill is using the shadows to their advantage and incapacitating small groups of opponents."

Sakura blinked, "Then why did you say that they could conquer the world?"

"I said that because no-one else knows anything about them, except for you and I. Therefore the Darkness ninja have surprise on their side."

"Oh, so all we have to do is tell someone on the outside what these guys can do and then we'll have nothing to worry about."

The girl smiled at Sasori. It was something he greatly despised, but found oddly pleasing the same time. It had been many years since he had ever caused a person to smile like that and he was surprised to find he was proud he still could. Anyone who knew him would say that he was a heartless monster that couldn't make a person happy or grateful, but this girl before him now disproved such a claim. However, smiles and happy people sickened him.

"Stop smiling, stupid girl. We still have to get out of this place in one piece to inform someone of what the Darkness ninja and their leader might be plotting to do."

Sakura's smile vanished, "Oh yeah…and we can't exactly walk out of this place in one piece, we'd probably get so lost in the forest that by the time we did leave, everyone would already be dead or enslaved. Great…" She started to drum the fingers on her left hand against the stone ground, creating an irritating pattern as she tried to think over yet another problem. Just as she was about to work out a sensible plan, some other thought entered her mind and pushed out all else, "Sasori, why is it you know what these ninja are called? I don't even know that, in fact I don't think anyone does who's not actually from this village."

"I know what they are called because I was told before I came here. Satisfied now, or do you wish to know more about me?" Sasori was being sarcastic when he offered for Sakura to learn more, but either the girl didn't hear the sarcasm or she chose to ignore it entirely.

"Well, actually I do want to know more about you, but I don't think you'd tell me anyways. You really don't like talking to people much, do you? I wonder how your friends can stand you sometimes…"

The puppet master grumbled quietly, "Friends are pointless and worthless. I have no need for any."

"Come on, you must have someone who's your friend?"

He glared at her.

"Nobody at all?"

Still no answer came from Sasori.

"Don't you want any?"

He was still glaring at Sakura, annoyed with her stupid questions and wishing for her silence to come soon. Luckily for the Akatsuki member, the pink-haired girl couldn't continue with her questions because a rumbling and loud scraping noise could be heard coming from the Yamikage's manor, which drowned out her words. The puppet master pressed a finger to his lips, signalling for the girl to shut up. She did so, but only because a marching and chanting was making its way down the street where they were hiding.

Sasori looked about for somewhere they could hide and chose the roof of the building that they were next to. He pointed with his right index finger to their new hiding place and silently leapt up onto the roof. Sakura followed him a couple of seconds afterwards, although she didn't land quite as silently as he had. Once more, Sasori cursed her mortality.

He didn't reprimand the girl though and instead opted for assessing how many Darkness ninja and puppets were currently marching below them both. His best estimate was around 500 ninja, each carrying two or three puppets between them. One thing that the puppets lacked, as Sasori could easily tell, was any kind of unique weaponry. They were quite literally lifeless, hollow dolls of their human selves. The puppet master could not see the purpose for such things, but he supposed that these ninja had a plan.

Sakura, on the other hand, was busy listening to what the ninja were chanting. She poked Sasori in the side, causing him to fix her with a glare. The girl ignored his glare, used to it by that point, and whispered to him, "They're planning to invade the Wind Country. They're chanting it as they march. You were right Sasori!"

The Akatsuki member merely looked back down at the Darkness ninja as they continued to exit their own village. For some reason, as they moved the perpetual darkness seemed to dissipate and the normal light was filling its place. That could only mean…

"Sakura, the darkness in the forest was only a jutsu they created. When they leave, we can escape too."

Sasori received no response from the normally talkative girl, so he glanced over his shoulder to find her slowly climbing down the roof. He cursed silently and leapt off the roof to get ahead of her.

When Sakura dropped off the roof and landed on the floor she was met with an angry Sasori, but that wasn't anything new anymore. So, she just walked past him and started to follow the path that the Darkness ninja had previously taken, only to have a pale and ice-cold hand grab her wrist.

"What do you think you're doing? We should wait for them to leave before we make a move to go too. Do you have a death wish?"

Sakura was still shocked by how cold Sasori's hand felt against her own skin. It was like she had thought before: he felt dead. The Leaf girl shook her head and took her wrist back from the puppet master, still freaked out.

"I don't have a death wish. I just think we should try to stop them before they get out of their own village. You said it yourself that they don't know how to use their puppets properly, so why don't we do something before they attack the Wind Country?"

Sakura was pleading with Sasori, knowing that it would probably be useless; he was less human than she had first believed. Now that she was standing so close to him, Sakura realised what it was that was completely off about Sasori. His chakra was not the same. It was concentrated in a certain place, not spread throughout his body like a normal person. Only when he made great movements could Sakura sense the chakra spreading more normally. He was not human, Sakura could see that now.

At last - after the silence had stretched on ominously and the Darkness ninja's marching and chanting had faded off into the distance - Sasori spoke, "Fine, we'll try to stop them. If things become too dangerous I'm leaving though."

Sakura smiled brightly, "Thank you Sasori! You won't regret this, I promise!"

Somehow, Sasori knew that he probably would.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:** Oh for goodness sake, why would I write fanfiction if I owned Naruto? Are ye all daft?

**Authoress' Note:** Oh my gosh! This chapter is my longest yet! I really can write a lot when I put my mind to it. I'd like to point out that I was too lazy to go over the battle of Sasori and Sakura in the Shippuuden anime, so any jutsu that either person may or may not have used in that will not be included in this chapter. Frankly, I would suck at trying to recall ALL the jutsu. I can barely remember stuff for my exams coming up on Wednesday! Also, this is my first true ninja battle so it might seem a little rushed, but I felt the need to write it like it is because my mind is almost dead from the lateness of the hour, lack of eating, and the fact that I spent a good few hours writing in vampire roleplays. Thank goodness I have no lessons today, or tomorrow in American perspective. Please note I won't be updating this until my exams are over or I feel less stressed out. Should be by Sunday then heheh... Thankies to all those who read the last chapter, and a collossal thank you to my reviewers! I seriously love you all! You guys and girls are amazing!

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**Chapter 9**

Sakura and Sasori followed the Darkness ninja's path through the forest, which was easy due to the sounds of the ninja ahead and the newly acquired light that they had all created. Sasori's best guess was that they would emerge from the forest in about an hour, which gave them both only an hour to remove as many enemy ninja as possible. Sasori still didn't believe that this idea would work, but he so desperately wanted to cause damage to the ones who had imprisoned him. Protecting the Wind Country was not his priority at all, even though the one-tailed demon container lived there. It was just something that would happen in the process of eliminating the Darkness ninja.

If he was being perfectly honest with himself, Sasori wanted to help the girl as well. He truly did, yet he couldn't work out why he did. It was just something…something that felt right. After this whole mess was over with though, he'd forget it happened and continue with his life like before. No more big green eyes that shine with emotions. No more perfectly smiling face. No more…What the heck was he thinking?? Sasori slapped his forehead in annoyance, causing Sakura to glance at him with confusion written across her face and in her green eyes that shine…

"Shut up! What is wrong with me?!"

Sakura stopped running and gave Sasori a look that clearly said 'He's crazy.' She cautiously walked towards the puppet master, even as the Darkness army marched on ahead of them gaining more and more distance. Sasori was cursing at himself and smacking his forehead for no reason that Sakura could see. Maybe he was only a machine and now he was broken? Sakura didn't believe that such an expressive being could truly be a machine or a puppet, but she still knew he couldn't be normal.

"Erm…Sasori, are you okay?"

He didn't respond to her question at all, just repeated over and over, "I don't care!"

Sakura took that as her cue to do something before they lost anymore ground. She stepped closer to Sasori, raised her right hand back, and slapped him across the face. She didn't even use chakra, but his head still moved from the impact. She gasped when she saw it go the whole way around before swivelling slowly back to face forwards once more. The girl took a step back from the boy and tripped over a protruding tree root, landing gracelessly on her behind. Even though the impact hurt slightly, Sakura still couldn't tear her eyes away from the person in front of her who had just rotated his head all the way around!

Eventually she stuttered out, "S-Sasori..?"

His dark eyes slid to her, but all insanity seemed to have vanished from his eyes and face. He looked almost…embarrassed? Sakura didn't know quite how to describe the small piece of emotion that passed through Sasori's eyes, but at least she knew then that he was not a monster because he could feel. She relaxed slightly at that thought, but she was still worried about why his head had rotated so much.

After a very awkward silence, Sasori graced Sakura with a response, "Pretend that you didn't see that. Nobody has ever done that to me before, and I'd prefer it if you never brought it up, ever."

"But why did…?"

"Why did my head rotate 360-degrees?" Sakura nodded. The puppet master continued, "The answer is simple: I'm a puppet, sort of."

Sakura fainted.

**_15 minutes later_**

Sasori poked the pink-haired girl in the side for the eighth time in the last few minutes, growing bored with having to wait for her to wake up. He did very much hate to wait, but for some reason he wasn't so angry while he waited for Sakura. She almost calmed him while she lay peacefully on the forest floor and he sat next to her and watched her sleep. He reached out to touch her cheek, but immediately stopped himself.

"What am I thinking? What am I even doing?! This girl means nothing to me. I don't even know her, so why am I acting like this? I should have killed her the moment I was freed, but I had to listen to some stupid voice in my head telling me not to. I should not be acting like some love-struck teenager!"

In his anger, Sasori's voice had risen which cause Sakura to wake up at last. She heard the last sentence in his tirade and was momentarily stunned by his words. She didn't understand why he was so angry, but apparently part of his anger was stemming from being 'love-struck'. She didn't know who he could be infatuated with, but she could guess it was probably her. Sakura wasn't confident in her ability to attract guys, not by a long shot, but she suspected that she had trapped one guy because she was the only female within miles and he hadn't started acting so strange until quite recently.

Sakura giggled when the puppet master began to tear up grass in his rage, probably imagining Sakura as the grass. When Sasori heard her laughter, he turned his head – normally – and glared at the girl who was now sat up and quite close to his own body, "Stop laughing girl or I'll remove your tongue. Let's go already so I can hurt something…"

He stood up and offered his hand for her to take, but withdrew it before Sakura could reach out to it. He cursed some more and hit his forehead once again, but the Leaf girl knew that this was nothing to worry about anymore; Sasori was just being Sasori. So, she rose to her feet on her own and took off running after their enemies, Sasori lagging behind due to his constant cursing.

The young teen couldn't understand why Sasori would be so upset and angry with simple feelings, but she also didn't understand Sasori in general anyways. He was too much of a puzzle that she desperately wanted to solve, but she was afraid of the results she would get at the end. Would he turn out to be a monster, or a man? She couldn't be entirely sure. He could feel and he was helping her, but she didn't know for how long this would remain as fact. Sakura didn't trust Sasori enough with her life as a ninja should when on a mission with a team mate. The simple truth was that they were not from the same team or the same village. Sakura doubted that Sasori was even a legitimate ninja. He could well be a rogue ninja or a criminal, but she had to work with him all the same.

"Sakura, focus or they'll see you!" called Sasori from behind her. The young girl looked ahead and noticed that the Darkness ninja were only a few feet away from them both, so she slowed her pace and moved to her companion's side.

"Do you have a plan for attacking these guys, since you're so well-informed?" Sakura asked casually, even though Sasori also caught a tinge of anger in her question. He didn't know what she was getting angry for, but he honestly couldn't deal with her stupid problems and issues for the moment. He had to think of a plan and fast.

Like a light-bulb switching on, a rather brilliant idea entered the puppet master's mind, "Here's the plan: you stay behind me and provide any support I need; I'll summon my puppets and take out their own ones and the ninja. Do you have a problem at all?"

Sakura shook her head, no, and moved a little further behind Sasori so he could perform the seals to release his puppet army. He raised both of his arms and unbuttoned his cloak. It slipped from his small form easily enough, exposing his puppet body for Sakura to see exactly what his comment had meant before. She had never seen anything quite like Sasori and yet she wasn't as horrified as she thought she'd be. He wasn't disfigured, just built differently from how a normal person would look. His stomach had what appeared to be a metal chord coiled inside it and in his chest was a strange shaped box where his heart would be. On his back were scrolls which Sakura assumed contained his puppets.

With a fluency that Sakura envied, Sasori removed a couple of the scrolls and held them in front of him. He moved his right hand to his chest and opened a compartment up, which seemed to be storing some of his chakra. He then made the necessary seals and both he and Sakura watched as his puppets emerged from the scrolls in quick succession. Sakura lost count at how many there were, but she estimated at well over 100. All of them carried deadly looking weapons and some form of poison dripped from the blades onto the forest floor. There were chakra strings connecting each puppet to their master, who stood with his back still to Sakura in an almost defensive manner. The girl doubted very much that it was his intent though.

The Darkness ninja who were nearer to the rear of the army turned about face and began to charge the masses of puppets that Sasori had summoned. Unfortunately for them, all the ninja who charged met an unseemly end on the tips of the puppets' weaponry. The screams and cries of pain disturbed Sakura greatly, but she managed to remind herself that Sasori was helping to remove a threat to the entire world, so it was necessary. The girl didn't want to imagine what would happen if she too were to face Sasori one day. A large part of her was afraid of that idea, but a very small part of her recoiled at the thought of hurting someone who was actually helping her live regardless of his methods.

Naturally, when all the ninja who had attacked from the rear were eliminated, the ones who had heard their cries also charged towards Sasori's puppets. Soon enough, Sasori and Sakura had the entire Darkness ninja armada heading for their doom against the puppet barricade. Some times the Darkness ninja go passed a puppet and sent kunai or shuriken at Sasori, but Sakura always moved in front and deflected the attacks away from her ally. The puppets themselves were wearing thin though, for Sakura noticed that more and more enemy ninja were slipping past Sasori's defences. It wouldn't be long before this plan would be a dud and both she and Sasori would need to fight and flee to survive.

When one particular kunai knife nearly hit Sakura on her skull, she felt it wise to voice her concerns, "Sasori, we can't last like this forever, can we? They're getting through the puppets!"

He glanced at Sakura for a moment and made eye contact with her, then he looked away and his gaze focused on the battle once more, "At this rate they'll destroy all my hard earned puppets. We aren't going to die though Sakura. I told you that if things got too rough I'd pull out, so I will. Most of the Darkness ninja are dead now anyway, so I'm sure someone else can handle this problem."

"What about me? Are you just going to leave me here to fight by myself?"

"No…" Sasori quickly grabbed Sakura before a ninja could slash at her back with his own, crudely made, puppet, "I'll take you with me, stupid girl. Why would I bother going through so much trouble just to let you die?"

Sakura smiled at Sasori slightly, relieved that he wasn't turning out to be the monster she imagined he would be. Yes, he was brutal in his ways and often angry, but he seemed to be concerned for her safety and that proved he was human too.

Sakura watched as Sasori's puppets continued to drop like flies against the enemy, hitting foe after foe each time one tried to harm her or Sasori. He was doing fine on his own though, having begun to use another scroll from his back which contained a flamethrower for each of his hands. Fire in a forest was possibly one of the worst things that the puppet master could choose to unleash, but so far the tactic was working because the Darkness ninja were kept on their toes all the time. Sakura believed that they all had some kind of fire phobia, what with the way they moved to avoid being burnt.

She socked a particularly annoying ninja in the jaw, sending him flying into a large tree, and checked over Sasori's own progress once again. All she had to do was follow the flames, which she did, and there he was fending off eight ninja at once. Sakura was a little worried for his safety, since eight on one were not good odds at all, but she remembered that Sasori was fully capable of handling small numbers like that with ease. So it came as a shock when a ninja appeared from behind Sasori, hidden entirely in shadows that he seemed to create on his own, and stabbed the puppet master in the back.

"Sasori!" Sakura called out in alarm as she beat her way to where her companion stood with the sword in his gut.

The ninja who had stabbed him was laughing about his 'victory' over Sasori, right up until the point where the puppet master swivelled his head around and glared with hate at the man, "That wasn't very clever."

Sasori focused on one of his remaining puppets and made it move behind the petrified Darkness ninja. The man was wearing a typical outfit that all Kage's wore: robes and a hat with the village symbol on it. The robes were black with white stripes on them. He didn't look too old, but Sasori could tell instantly that this man was the Yamikage. If he were to die, then surely the other ninja would stop their attacks and flee? With that positive thought in mind, the Akatsuki member manoeuvred his puppet and commanded it to impale the man from behind - a rather fitting end.

However, the puppet would not obey Sasori's commands. Sasori looked at the puppet and narrowed his eyes when he saw poorly constructed chakra strings attached to it from another person. He used his mind to tug at the puppet, causing the foreign strings to snap away from the puppet and giving full control back to the puppet master.

"Die!" yelled Sasori at the man, just as the puppet's scythe impaled the man straight through his centre, leaving a huge hole and causing the man to topple to the forest floor dead. Sasori turned his head back the right way round and tugged the offending sword from his back, dropping it to the ground. Sasori looked up just as Sakura charged at the last Darkness ninja that had still surrounded him, creating a clear path to run through.

"Sa…sori…" she huffed, exhausted from the over use of her small chakra reserves, "I thought…you…were…dead…"

The puppet master poked the mark in his gut where the man had stabbed him, "That won't kill me Sakura, so you don't need to worry about me. Now let's get out of here before they decide to nominate a new leader."

Sakura nodded, not needing to be told twice, and scanned the ground for Sasori's discarded cloak. She couldn't have him travelling around like that after all, people might question things. It was the least she could do anyways. She spotted it a few feet away and jogged towards the cloak to retrieve it. Sakura picked the worn thing up and draped it over her arm gently, then returned to Sasori, who was currently returning the 50 puppets that had survived back into their scrolls. The girl felt sorry for Sasori, since he had lost so many of his treasure puppets while she had not lost anything at all.

"Here's your cloak Sasori. I thought you might want it back." She smiled and handed it carefully to the Akatsuki member, who was stunned that the girl had even bothered.

"….Thank you." It was perhaps the first time he had said that in years and meant it. He truly meant those words. Nobody had been as thoughtful to him as Sakura was being. He couldn't help it….he was starting to like the pink-haired girl from the Leaf village called Sakura.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it. I DO own a cuteful Kakashi chibi badge, which is officially my lucky charm every day

**Authoress' Note:** I got this one out faster than I expected, but I can't be bothered to revise anyways. I'll do some tonight, but I honestly don't think I can pass the exams either way. This had to be typed on my dad's old pc because my laptop is currently with technicians at the college. Egads, I feel lost without it! Oh, I hope I don't make any nasty OOCness in this chapter, but I had to have some more character development so that I can work on at the very least a friendship for the pair. It would be awful for Sasori and Sakura to "magically" fall in love from the start. Scary too... Next chapter they should be out of the forest! Yayness!

Thankies to all my kind reviewers. You guys give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside my heart every time I see a new review. And thank you to those who favourite this story too! In fact, just thanks a bunch to everyone who reads it!

I'm thinking of changing the summary for this story too, to attract more readers. Got any suggestions folks?

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**Chapter 10**

The new emotions beginning to fester in Sasori's mind and what remained of his heart, were strange and unsettling for the puppet master. He could not understand where they had come from, but for the time being the emotions were only going to get in Sasori's way. The girl who the feelings revolved around had started talking once more, so the red-haired Akatsuki tried his best to block out her words with his own thoughts.

"Sasori, when you said that you were a puppet, what did you mean exactly?" Sakura timidly asked her companion. Sasori offered no answer, so the Leaf girl decided to try again, though not as politely, "What do you mean when you say you're a puppet?"

The Akatsuki turned to his left where Sakura was running alongside him, and sighed in irritation. He stopped abruptly and waited until Sakura stopped as well. Then he looked at her with a serious expression, "I meant exactly what I said. I am a puppet."

The young girl still could not comprehend what he was saying, "But…how can you be a…a puppet?"

"You saw the battle back there, didn't you? You saw what I could do, yes?" Sakura nodded her head slowly. "Well, what human have you seen that can use flamethrowers in their hands, or survive a stab wound without any blood? I am no longer a mere human."

Sakura remained silent as she became lost in her own thoughts. The things that she knew about Sasori from the moment they had met were very contradictory. For one, he had no living body. For another, his chakra didn't flow like everyone else's. On top of that he could use tools and weapons from within his own body and he couldn't die by normal methods. She could agree with Sasori on one thing: his body was no longer human. Yet, for all those differences he still had a human soul. He still thought independently and he still felt emotions like every other person in the world. With those aspects, Sakura could not deny that Sasori was very much human and not a cold, lifeless puppet like he claimed to be.

She stared with her emerald eyes into his crimson ones, "You're right, you are not human…on the outside." Sasori looked at Sakura through narrowed eyes, already knowing what she would say. "However, I can tell you're still human, because you think and feel like one. Those are all you really need to justify being human or not."

Sakura gave the puppet master a small smile, but what she thought were kind words to him caused Sasori to fume with anger. He grabbed her shoulders tightly, causing blood to drip to the floor and mix with the leaves and dirt. In one quick motion he had her pinned by her shoulders against the nearest tree, while he kept his head held high and facial expression cold. The lack of emotions in those dark eyes worried the pink-haired girl, but she dared not show any fear to him.

"How dare you say that I am the same as everyone else? I am above worthless human emotions and I don't require some worthless little brat from the Leaf village talking to me as though we are equals! We are not! I should have killed you the moment you removed that net!"

Some light entered Sakura's worried eyes, the same eyes that always conveyed her emotions and feelings to the world, "Then haven't you killed me Sasori? What's stopping you?"

Sasori's grip on Sakura's shoulders lessened a small bit at her words, while the white hot anger he was feeling slowly faded and confusion momentarily passed over his face as though he was not aware of his actions. Unfortunately for Sakura, he did not remove his vice-grip on her and she was still pinned firmly to the tree.

Sasori spoke once more, but his rage was decidedly not as explosive as before, "I don't know why I haven't killed you; I don't know why I kept you around either. I'm not going to pass up the chance to kill you though…"

Sasori moved with lightning fast reflexes that Sakura couldn't follow, and wrapped his thin hands around her throat in an attempt to strangle the girl. No matter how much Sakura struggled, she could not break free from his grasp and her breathing was rapidly slowing to a stop. She tried one last ditch attempt to remove his hands from her neck, but the red-head was just too strong and Sakura's body was too weak from the lack of air. Her hands fell to her sides loosely and her eyes began to close with her last few breaths, but suddenly the pain was gone around her throat and Sakura was on the forest floor, gasping for breath.

She wheezed and coughed and sucked up all the air her lungs could manage - although she had a suspicion that those vital organs were too small for the amount of oxygen she needed – and then looked at her would-be killer.

Sasori's eyes held shock and confusion, things not seen on his face since he was a small child. The usually guarded Akatsuki member now looked very, very vulnerable and in turmoil with his own actions.

At once, Sakura felt some pity for her strangler, but stopped when he burst out laughing! Sasori was laughing at this? Maybe he was insane; it wouldn't surprise Sakura in the least if that turned out to be the truth. She didn't think his laugh sounded insane though. It seemed kind of pleasant, but she guessed it wasn't a laugh of joy at all.

The pink-haired girl scolded her mind for wandering too much – it did it at the most inappropriate times – and focused on what Sasori was muttering to himself.

"This is ridiculous! I can't even kill one little girl! All because I have some wild idea that I—"

He stopped talking when he noticed that said girl he couldn't kill was giving him her full attention. He closed his mouth and looked away from her, slightly embarrassed and very annoyed that he had nearly said something he shouldn't even be thinking. If Sasori was able to blush, he probably would be as well, but luckily he couldn't. He didn't even bother to look at Sakura when he asked her, "Does it hurt much?"

Of course it hurt her, but she couldn't be bothered to get into a shouting argument when she was still trying to regain her breath, "Not much, no."

There was a nod from the red-head, and then he offered the pink-haired girl his hand to help her up, still avoiding eye contact. Sasori knew that if he looked into her eyes again, she'd have him caught in some kind of spell. For all he knew, she could be a witch – although Sasori did not believe in magic at all…

Sakura took his hand hesitantly and then he pulled her up quickly, letting go of her hand once she was on her own two feet again. He never once checked to see if she followed him as he walked ahead along the route that they had been traversing before. The Darkness ninja that had survived the fight were no longer in sight, so this was a sign that both he and Sakura were going the right way. The faster they left the forest, the faster he could part ways with the girl and never have to look at her face again. The idea saddened Sasori somewhat, but he replaced the sadness with the rage he was so accustomed to instead.

It was at that point that he heard Sakura fall over a little ways behind him. Sasori cursed and looked back at the Leaf girl, but she didn't stand up, only clutched her ankle tightly with her hands.

"I think I broke my ankle—"

Sasori interrupted Sakura before she could finish what she was saying, "Perfect…I suppose you expect to be carried?"

The girl glanced at her ally and rolled her eyes at him. A green glow surrounded her two hands and slowly began to mend her broken ankle bone. Sasori stood perfectly still, fascinated by the medical jutsu that Sakura was using. He was more puppet than man, so he never needed to see this type of skill anymore. The others in the Akatsuki never got medic ninjas to help with their injuries either; they usually used simple bandages and ointment to heal their cuts and scrapes.

When the glow finally faded, Sakura tested her ankle and slowly got back up on her feet, although her chakra was no noticeably less than before.

"I didn't know you were a medic."

Sakura grinned at the puppet master, although it wasn't as happy as it could have been. The near-death incident with Sasori had left her somewhat afraid of him.

"There's a lot that you don't know about me…" She started walking once more and Sasori chose to walk beside her this time.

"Then…why don't you tell me?"

Sakura blinked in shock at his words. He sounded so genuinely curious, as though he cared about her. Deciding not to lose a rare opportunity like this, Sakura took a deep, calming breath and asked, "What would you like to know? I can't tell you everything Sasori, since I don't know much of anything about you either. There's a …certain level of trust that you have to earn first you know."

The puppet master nearly smiled at that, but caught himself before he could embarrass himself any further. He looked at the girl that was walking next to him, and his eyes flicked to the finger marks that had started to form around her neck. He grimaced, another thing completely unlike him to do, and looked ahead once more.

"Why were you in that village Sakura?"

Sakura put a finger to her chin in thought, "Um…I was there to learn what had happened to the missing villagers. Although technically the Kazekage forbade me to continue the mission and I was supposed to go straight home to the Leaf village." She laughed nervously at that. "Gaara's going to be mad when he finds out where I've been!" She gave Sasori a sly look, "And why were YOU in that village Sasori?"

"I…er…" Was he nervous? He never got nervous! The girl was affecting him again. "I had a mission to do…a type of reconnaissance if you want to call it that. My leader will wish to know that the village is not worth our time though."

"Oh, so your leader had some interest with the village? Somehow, I don't think I want to know what the interest might have been. It was probably nothing good."

Sasori smirked at that, "Well it all depends on your perspective."

Sakura giggled a little and then hissed in pain. Sasori held concern in his eyes at what might be causing her pain. "You don't have to look so worried Sasori, it's only my neck. Must have been from where you…" Sakura trailed off, uncomfortable with the topic at hand.

"Yes," Sasori said quietly, "your neck is all red. It'll bruise if you don't heal is now."

Some five minutes later, Sasori was pulling Sakura along the path by holding her hand while she stumbled from the lack of chakra flowing through her. Healing always took a lot out of the pink-haired medic, but with the combined effects of the fight before Sakura was near exhaustion. Sasori had merely suggested that he guarantee that she didn't collapse suddenly while they travelled, by taking her hand in his.

He refused to carry the girl, for that would be too humiliating, but he couldn't very well let her walk by her own limbs. She'd probably fall into a ditch or something, and then Sasori would have to carry her out and wait for her to rest. This way was less hassle, but Sasori didn't like having to hold Sakura's hand at all. Well, a part of him liked it, but he didn't think that it qualified as a sane part.

"I have more questions for you Sakura, but they can wait until you get your rest. And that isn't happening until we get out of this stupid forest…where is the exit?!"

"Sasori…slow…down…" Sakura whined, still tired and not at all liking the haste with which the puppet master was walking. Finally he stopped and Sakura attempted to regain her strength for a moment.

"We're almost out of this forest; can't you at least keep up until then?" Sakura shook her head in answer. "Fine, I guess I will have to carry you after all…" he grumbled in aggravation. He released Sakura's hand and picked the girl up like a sack of potatoes.

"Hey, put me down right now Sasori!"

"Alright then, if you insist."

The puppet master did exactly as she commanded and dropped her onto the hard forest floor. Sakura growled something incoherent and tried to get back up again, but she couldn't muster the strength to move much. Meanwhile Sasori was laughing at her suffering; a deep, happy laugh.

"You asked to be put down Sakura!" another chuckle. "I was just doing what you told me to."

"Well it wasn't funny. My face hurts now…"

"…Sorry…Here, let me help you up…" Sasori pulled Sakura back onto her feet, the mirth still on his face. It was at that moment, with Sakura smiling at him and he still happy, that Sasori realised just what he was doing. He yanked his hand away from Sakura and practically jumped away from the girl as though he'd been electrocuted.

"What's wrong Sasori?"

The Akatsuki member forced his face to become stern, "That never happened. Just forget all about it."

Sakura didn't understand, "I don't follow you…weren't we having fun?"

"I don't have fun, especially not with some stupid little girl from the Leaf village."

Something was bugging Sakura about what he had just said. Just what did he mean by 'little girl'? Weren't they near enough the same age? He looked about her age. So how was she just a little girl to him?

"Why do you keep acting like you're older than me? You don't look much older…"

"How old do you think I am Sakura?"

The pink-haired teenager placed her palm on her right cheek in thought, with her right elbow resting on her left arm. "You look around 15 or 16 to me."

Sasori smirked, "I'm over 30 years old."

Once again, Sakura fainted.


	11. Chapter 11

**DISCLAIMER: **I own nothing and make no profit, for this is purely a fan-made story for entertaining others and is therefore FREE to read. If I owned Naruto, I'd probably be very rich, which I am not.

**Authoress' Note:** Sorry for the two week-ish delay in an update. I had a terrible case of writer's block, yet I knew what I wanted these last few chapters to include. It was bizarre. I also had my A-Level exams to get through, but they are very much over with now so the next chapter will be out either by tomorrow or Friday. I was at a loss with how to present Deidara, so please let me know what you think in your reviews.

I am very happy with the number of people who read this story, favourite it, alert it and review it! It makes my day each time I see a new e-mail in my inbox telling me that someone else really enjoys reading this story, because it's my very first attempt at a Naruto one. Please do stick with this until the end, which is in about 2 chapters time now, and I hope you will all read the sequel when I work on that one!

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**Chapter 11**

When Sakura woke up it was to the warm morning sunshine bathing her entire body. A smile graced her lips and she stretched her arms while sitting up. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, Sakura idly wondered how she had fallen asleep so suddenly. She looked behind her, where the forest of the Darkness ninja loomed ominously - but it wasn't as dark as it had once been.

"I wonder how I got out of there..?"

Like a light switching on in a pitch-dark hall, the last few moments before she passed out flooded her mind: she with her near empty chakra stores and Sasori trying to help her out of the forest, then she asking him how old he really was and he replying that he was over 30...which caused her to faint.

"Oh joy...so Sasori's some weird old guy and I must seem like an idiot now! No wonder he keeps being angry with me! I'm acting so immature to him." The pink-haired ninja slapped her forehead in irritation, "I should apologise the next time I see him...come to think of it, where is Sasori?"

The puppet master had carried Sakura a safe distance away from the forest, but he was nowhere within sight. Sakura gazed all around the various sand dunes and small boulders and still couldn't find him.

"Great, he ditched me! How 'kind' of him to do so." Her anger subsided slightly when she realised that Sasori hadn't owed her anymore than helping her get out of the village and forest, "I guess I can't be angry with him. He did help me get out, when I could tell he had never helped anyone else in his life."

The Leaf ninja sighed heavily and stood up, dusting her shorts and legs off which had gained a nice, healthy layer of sand. She turned to her right and almost died of shock! Right in front of her was a strange, hunched figure dressed in the same type of cloak as Sasori's - black with red clouds decorating it. The hunched person was also wearing a hat that had some bells on it, blowing in the slight breeze. For some reason, Sakura had not noticed the person until now.

With a little nervousness in her voice, Sakura tried to calmly get the person's attention, "Um...excuse me, can I help you..?"

The hunched person gave no reply and didn't even attempt to look in her direction. The person had their back to Sakura, so she couldn't even tell if it was a man or woman. The only thing that puzzled Sakura was why they had the exact same kind of cloak as Sasori. The teenage girl had to find out!

Cautiously and with as much stealth as she could muster, Sakura approached the shorter person. When she peered around to see their face, the pink-haired girl gasped in alarm and fell backwards onto her arse.

She raised a hand and pointed at the face that was clearly wooden and not at all real, "W-What i-is that t-thing??"

A calm voice answered from behind Sakura, "His name is Hiruko, and he's one of my puppets."

If not for the fact that Sakura knew that voice well, she would have probably jumped in alarm at the closeness of the speaker. As such, she recognised at once her previously missing companion's slightly charming voice and turned to glare at him, "Where the hell have you been Sasori?!" It appeared as though Sakura's slight panic had been switched for her anger when the puppet master had arrived. She darted onto her feet quickly and placed both hands on her hips to show just how truly angry she was with Sasori, who for his part remained silent. "Are you just going to stand there and say nothing? And what did you mean one of your puppets? What the hell was it even doing there?!"

Sasori glared at Sakura, annoyed with the girl before him who had the nerve to say such things. By all rights he should just have killed her when he got out of the forest, since his only bargain with her was to ensure she escaped the village and the dangerous forest itself. Yet he could not simply kill her when she had been so weak and vulnerable. The reason for the strange lapse in his otherwise cold and merciless personality was not one that Sasori wished to ever address; he was certain it would not be anything good.

Looking at the girl before him now, Sasori was undecided whether her rage would merit as a reasonable excuse to kill her. Sakura was no longer injured and weakened from charka loss – why should he keep her alive anymore than he already had?

Noticing that he still had yet to answer her questions, Sasori decided that he'd just keep her alive until he grew bored by her presence. He lessened his glare at Sakura and replied in a voice that was hopefully not as menacing as his thoughts had been, "I went to find some water for you, since you hadn't had anything to drink for quite some time and I know that you humans can't last without a little drop of water after nearly a week of having none at all." The puppet master tossed a small bottle of water at Sakura, who caught it before it collided with her head. Sasori then walked over to Hiruko and continued with his explanation – although he didn't know why he was even bothering to explain his actions, "I left Hiruko here as a sentry of sorts should danger have come during my absence. I had placed some simple traps that would set off it anyone not matching my chakra signature or your own tried to approach you. If I had known that you would be afraid of a mere puppet I would have kindly left you to die here."

Sakura tried to find a comment to counter what had seemed quite logical, however rudely he had said the words, but nothing came to her mind. Sasori had actually been concerned about her wellbeing. Gratitude swelled inside her towards the red-haired person standing only a couple of metres away, but she wasn't quite sure how to thank him. A simple 'thank you' would suffice, she supposed, but she felt like she had to do more than just that.

Sakura racked her brain to try and recall anything that struck her as odd about Sasori that she could hopefully change for the better, when she suddenly remembered the conversation that had occurred a couple of nights ago. He had quite adamantly told her that he did not need any friends, but she remembered how coldly he had said those words and how it had hurt her heart to know that he was very alone in the world.

Perhaps she could offer her friendship to the grouchy puppeteer?

Cautiously Sakura approached Sasori, trying her very best to not look slightly nervous or even remotely crazy in any way, shape or form. It wouldn't do to make Sasori instantly reject any offers of friendship before he even thought about it. Sakura calmly schooled her face into one of honesty and she spoke without once stammering or stumbling over her words, "I'm grateful that you were worried about me Sasori, I really am. Thank you for everything that you've done."

She smiled and this was the thing that unnerved Sasori more than her words had. He glanced at the pink-haired girl as though she was partially insane, but he didn't speak or make any motions as though he wished to. He just let the young girl finish what she wanted to say.

Sakura took a deep breath and continued, "I know that you think little of friendships and the concept of friends, but…would you like to be friends with me Sasori?" She was hopeful, but not too hopeful.

Her question puzzled the puppet master and for a moment he was stunned – his eyes had widened and his mouth hung open in shock. After much care, and a good ten minutes, Sasori composed himself and managed to find his voice, "What are you blabbering about girl?"

"I would like for us to be friends, Sasori. I had thought that I had made that clear with my question, but apparently you didn't understand." Sakura was slightly angry with the reaction that the puppet master had to her words, but she merely tried again with her question.

"I heard what you said and I understood your words well enough. What I do not comprehend is WHY you believe that I would ever desire to be your friend. Are you sure you didn't damage your brain in this heat?"

His words were condescending and once more made Sakura realize that he wasn't exactly her equal with age. Still, she had to at least try once more to make him consider her words in stead of simply brushing them off.

"My brain is perfectly fine; I just thought that you might appreciate the offer of being someone's friend when you told me that you had none. Don't you get tired of being alone?"

He narrowed his eyes, the glare he had suppressed now back with a vengeance, "I don't want your friendship, little girl. Now take your pity to someone who actually wants it!"

With that he swiftly placed his puppet back into the scroll he had removed it from and then stomped off in the opposite direction of the forest, intent to get as far from Sakura as he possibly could.

The girl's words left him feeling disturbed and…alone. Never before had he truly thought into the depth of his loneliness, but now that it was brought up he began to consider how long he had remained detached from other human beings. Of course, he couldn't fit in with them since he was not a real human being anymore, but he did still have feelings and a soul, however dormant they were.

In the past few days he had spent away from the rest of the Akatsuki and with Sakura, he had come to acknowledge long forgotten emotions: worry, fear, happiness and caring for another. For some reason he had felt a strong desire to protect Sakura and make sure that she was healthy and alive, even after they had emerged from that accursed forest.

Perhaps he shouldn't have been so angry and harsh with the young girl; she only wanted to offer him friendship, not anything serious like a declaration of love! Sasori knew that he would never be able to accept her offer though, seeing as how he was a dangerous and wanted criminal and she was a loyal ninja from the Leaf village.

Still…he could try, couldn't he?

With the intent to at least apologise to the pink-haired girl, Sasori pivoted around on his feet and marched back towards where he had left her, only to sense the presence of someone nearby. He turned his red-topped head skywards and nearly sighed with relief when he saw just who the new presence was.

The giant clay bird descended slowly towards the ground, landing with ease that real birds took months to master. The rider of the bird leapt off the back of the creature and landed with a crouch on the sand, his long blonde hair blowing in the gentle breeze as he did so. He stood up and looked at the puppet master, a grin present on his face, "Sasori, everyone's been worried about you. Well, no that's a lie…Our Leader wants to know why you weren't sending any reports back to him, so he sent me to find you and bring you back, yeah."

Sasori scowled at his blonde-haired partner, "I was…a little busy, Deidara."

Deidara frowned at Sasori, but then a mischievous smile adorned his face, "And what were you busy with, yeah? Did the stupid villagers annoy you so much that you had to kill them all, yeah?"

"Not quite, although a fair amount of their corpses now litter their precious forest. As much as I dislike admitting this, the ninja of that village had somehow found a way to capture me and kept me locked in a storage room for puppets for nearly an entire week. I had some help in getting out of the village and the forest, but there was a fight before we managed to leave the place. The current leader of that village is dead now though, so I doubt they'll be looking for revenge anytime soon."

Deidara had perked up at the mention of another person helping his partner, "Who helped you, yeah?"

Sasori wasn't too sure that he wanted to tell anyone about Sakura, but he had confidence that Deidara would never tell the other Akatsuki about her so he reluctantly confided in his blonde-haired partner about the 'ordeal' he had been through in the Darkness village. He left out things that seemed too personal – like his confusing thoughts and feelings – but he told Deidara that Sakura was a Leaf ninja. Deidara did not look pleased. His one visible blue eye widened in shock.

"And you just let her live?! What if she tells someone about you?! We have to go back and make sure she won't tell anyone, yeah!"

Sasori grabbed the ex-stone ninja's cloak and pulled him close to his face, anger evident in his very presence, "WE will be doing nothing of the sort Deidara! She won't tell anyone, of that I'm certain. So just forget about her." He dropped his partner onto the sandy floor and reined in his anger, his fists clenched at his sides.

"Whatever you say Sasori, yeah."

They both hopped onto the back of the large clay bird and Deidara made his creation rise steadily into the air. Once they had reached a reasonable height, the bird began to head back into the direction of the nearest Akatsuki base, which happened to be past the large forest of the Darkness ninja.

They neared the forest and Sasori automatically thought of the pink-haired girl that he had left alone in the desert. Sakura probably hated him now and wanted nothing to do with him, but Sasori couldn't help as his eyes traveled downwards and searched for a patch of pink amidst the golden sands. What his eyes saw made him freeze with fear…for Sakura.

The remaining Darkness ninja had emerged from the forest and leading them was a new Yamikage. He didn't so much care about how they had managed to choose a new Kage so quickly, but he was worried about the sheer numbers that were all encircling the small form of Sakura, who was very much on her own now.

"Deidara…land somewhere now."

His partner looked at him confusedly, for he hadn't seen the large group of people left of where they were flying, "Why, yeah?"

"Don't question me, just do it!" His voice sounded frantic even to his own ears. He didn't care though. Sakura was in danger and he had left her there…alone.

"Alright, alright…" With a sigh, Deidara made the clay creation land in the sand below their current position, but before the bird's feet even touched the ground Sasori had jumped down and was walking swiftly towards the left…towards a large group of ninja that Deidara had only just noticed.

The blonde followed his red-haired partner and caught up to him when they reached a small hill that provided some cover from the eyes of the enemy ninja. He didn't know why Sasori had seemed so desperate to be there, but he raised his head briefly over the top of the hill and used his eye-scope to get a closer look at the ninja. They were all without any head band, so Deidara assumed they were probably the Darkness ninja that Sasori had mentioned. One was wearing a black set of robes like in the style of a Kage, so he was probably their leader. What struck the explosive expert as strange was the one lone Leaf ninja standing in the middle of the large group. She looked afraid, but at the same time she stood bravely as she stared at the Kage.

"Sasori," Deidara whispered to his partner, "Why are we here, yeah?"

The puppet master didn't look away from the group as he said, "That's her Deidara, the girl who helped me."

The blonde's mouth formed an 'oh' and he turned his blue eyed gaze back to the other ninja ahead of them.

Sasori's eyes narrowed dangerously when he saw that the Darkness ninja were closing in slowly on Sakura's lonely form. He looked back at his partner, a rare spark of concern shining in his normally cold red eyes, "We have to help her…but we'll need a plan first…"

Deidara seemed worried that his partner had become a little soft. Never before had Sasori actually cared for another person's life. Still, the blonde wasn't about to stop the puppet master from doing what he wanted; Deidara was secretly glad that his cold partner had finally found someone to care about.

A gleam appeared in the blonde's eye and he smiled with glee when a plan formed in his mind that would be very fun to carry out, "I have an idea, yeah…"


	12. Chapter 12

**Authoress' Note:** After a grueling 2 hours I finally completed this chapter. It's not as long as it's predecessor, but I feel as if I have done okay. Is everyone eager to see what Deidara's plan was?

Once again, a HUGE thank you to everyone that reads this story and a GIGANTIC thank you and many huggles to those who review as well. You make my world keep spinning . Please, please review once you've read this chapter, since I wasn't entirely happy with the end of the chapter at all and there is only one more chapter left of this story.

**DISCLAIMER:** I wouldn't be writing this if I owned 'Naruto'. Instead, I would've have made this part of the actual plotline so that Sasori could have lived. Sadly, I do not own 'Naruto', so it'll never happen.

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**Chapter 12**

Sakura was well and truly screwed; there was no way that she'd survive so many enemy ninja attacks, all by herself. If she was lucky, she'd be able to take out at least three or four before the rest made mincemeat out of her. The whole idea of dying was not something that Sakura ever liked to entertain in her mind, but she knew that she'd probably die slowly and painfully. These guys couldn't be happy with losing so many of their forces against two enemies, so Sakura was fairly certain that they would be taking their aggression out on her.

One thing surprised the pink-haired girl though: the Kage of their village was still alive, but Sasori had told her that he was dead.

Sakura glanced curiously at the black clothed figure, whose face was well-hidden beneath the black Kage hat. She couldn't see anything that would reveal the man's identity – not that she actually knew any of the Darkness ninja anyways. Except she knew of that Shinji person from the prison area, but he was probably still back there unconscious…or dead.

So, it was a great shock for the poor Leaf ninja when the man let out a twisted laugh and removed his hat, giving Sakura a full view of his cruel face. The face of the man who she had beaten unconscious back in the prison: Shinji.

"Well, well, little girl it appears that you are all by yourself now. Where's your 'brave' companion? Did he leave you because he realised how annoying you were? Or perhaps he left because he was not the 'chivalrous' person you thought he was?"

Sakura couldn't respond, her words were caught in her throat, so she just settled for fixing him with a cold glare. It only caused him to laugh harder though and she wondered whether she had knocked his brains out when she hit him before.

"I still haven't forgotten what you did to me before pinky, so I'm going to make sure you get all that you're due. But first…" Shinji signalled with his right arm and the close circle of Darkness ninja formed hand signs, all the same ones and all at the same time. Within seconds the entire space around Sakura and the Darkness ninja became engulfed in a black sphere. From somewhere within the total darkness Shinji's taunting voice echoed, "We wouldn't want you to fight back now pinky. You can't find your way out, so don't bother trying that either. Just stay put and let me kill you painfully!"

A shuriken slashed at Sakura's left arm and she hissed at the pain, while the blood started to seep out of the wound. The Leaf girl took on a defensive stance and tried to sense the chakra of her enemy, but she couldn't feel anything except her own. Her hearing was also not as adept as it should have been; the sphere made it impossible for her to locate where Shinji's voice had come from. With no sight, no hearing and no sense of her enemy's chakra, Sakura was literally fighting in the dark.

More shuriken began to hurtle from various directions in the darkness and Sakura tried to dodge each one, only barely avoiding a metal star that was aimed at her face. The rest managed to cut her all across her bare arms and her legs.

Quickly, Sakura gathered some chakra into her palms and started to heal the small wounds, but before she could even close up one, Shinji dove at her with a weapon that she couldn't identify. After the metal easily slid into her flesh, Sakura's hazy mind realised it was a katana that he had driven into her side. He ripped it out and laughed once again as the sphere vanished around them all.

Sakura's vision blurred while the blood continued to slowly escape through the wound in her side, but she was unable to move her arms to heal the injury because Shinji was standing on them both.

"How does it feel pinky, to be in so much pain?"

Sakura couldn't answer; the pain was consuming her thoughts and forcing her to drift away slowly into a blissful slumber. Anything was better than the pain and the look on that cruel man's face as he soaked in all her anguish.

Before Sakura could fully succumb to sleep, another voice spoke up over Shinji's laughter, "Get away from her now."

Sakura knew that voice; it was one that she had become accustomed to over the past few days and nights. With painstaking effort she turned her tired head to see the owner of the blissfully welcome voice. Her eyes brightened when she saw that Sasori was standing just outside the circle of Darkness ninja, his face a look of pure rage.

Apparently Shinji was not worried at all, "Oho! You came back to save her did you? Stupid fool, you're a puppet! We can stop you with our jutsu!"

Sasori didn't move at all, but a large shadow hovered over the ring of ninja like a giant cloud. The Darkness ninja all looked up with curious expressions and saw the largest bird imaginable flying just above their heads. While each of them was distracted, Sasori dashed for Sakura's limp body and scooped her up before the enemies even realised what he'd done.

Shinji, of course, noticed the second that Sasori had taken Sakura a safe distance and he tried to pursue them both. He never made it farther than out of the circle of ninja, for the large bird quickly dropped from the sky and a spectacular explosion emitted from its clay body. Screams began, but were silenced as the ninja's lives fazed out and vanished. There weren't even body parts left over; only the occasional tattered pieces of clothing remained.

Hysterical laughter rang through the air as Sasori's partner Deidara skipped over to admire his handiwork. He had a huge grin plastered on his face and his eyes were lit up with mirth, "Sasori, did you see their faces? They had no idea what was about to happen, yeah! I think I outdid myself this time. That was the biggest clay bird I've ever crafted before, yeah." He turned to where his partner had carried Sakura, but at once his smile began to subside, "Sasori…is she okay, yeah?"

The red-head glanced at his partner briefly and then looked back down at the injured girl in his arms, "I don't know Deidara. She lost consciousness not long after I picked her up. She's seriously injured as well."

The puppet master's normally calm voice faltered slightly at his last comment. Sasori just didn't know how he could help the girl; he'd never healed before in his life! The logical thing to do would be to take Sakura to the Sand village and hope she got medical care in time, but the journey would take a while on foot. He didn't know if Sakura would last that long and he wasn't sure what he'd do if she died.

This girl was the first to make him care for someone else and he…liked her. He would admit that much at least. She was amiable company and she had even gotten a few laughs and smiles out him. He honestly didn't want to lose any of that, so he just had to save her…somehow.

"Deidara, can you make another clay bird?"

The blonde had now moved next to Sasori, who was standing rigidly with Sakura asleep in his arms. With a quick nod, Deidara removed the necessary amount of clay from within one of the pouches on his hips. He placed the clay into the palm of his left hand and waited while the mouth on his hand ate the clay. When the mouth spat it back out into his palm, he quickly moulded the clay into that of a bird. With the bird completed he tossed it onto the sandy ground and formed a one-handed sign with his left hand. The bird enlarged to a size that could easily carry three people and Deidara motioned for Sasori to get on the back of the bird first.

No words were exchanged as the pair flew off into the sky and headed for the Sand village. Somehow Deidara had known that this was the only place to take the girl and Sasori decided it was best not to question his destructive partner. In stead he settled for staring into Sakura's sleeping face, trying to will her to be alright and open her green eyes. She didn't, as he guessed that she wouldn't.

With a speed that would make many envy Deidara's creation, the pair of Akatsuki arrived in the outskirts of the Sand village after only half a day. Deidara quickly jumped off of his clay bird and collapsed onto the sand floor, completely tired with the amount of chakra it took to make the bird travel so fast.

Sasori paid him no mind as he hopped off of the bird and marched swiftly into the village that he had abandoned so many years before. Luckily for them both, there were no sentries on watch duty when Sasori entered the streets. It was the middle of the night and nobody was around. The puppet master was mildly surprised, but the fragile person in his arms easily stopped his mind from wondering too much about the lack of security in the paranoid village.

He strode swiftly to the only hospital that the village had to offer, one he remembered even after so many years away from the Sand village. There was only a single woman at the desk when he walked in, and she looked far from alert so he didn't bother with discretion. He just cleared his throat and demanded, "I need a doctor right now."

The woman rubbed at her tired eyes and then paled when she saw the state of Sakura's bloody body, "Yes, of course - down the hall and on your first right." She pointed and Sasori took off in that direction, careful to make sure that he didn't knock Sakura into any doors or walls.

He kicked the door in easily, rather than trying to struggle with the handle, and placed Sakura neatly onto the spare bed in the room. Once he was certain that Sakura was still breathing – something he had to keep reminding himself to check – he waited for the doctor to come and see to her.

It took the space of two minutes before a doctor and his assistant swiftly entered the room and then began to see just where Sakura was injured. The assistant tried to get Sasori to leave, but he refused to budge until he knew if she would live or not.

After the doctor had begun to heal Sakura's major wound – the hole in her side where Shinji had impaled her – he reassured Sasori that she'd be just fine after rest and some recovery time.

"How did she get like this, young man?" the doctor asked Sasori once the hole had closed significantly.

"She was attacked." Sasori deadpanned, not bothering to go into great detail.

"I see." The doctor gave Sasori a questioning look, "And did you see who attacked her?"

"Yes, but that's not important now." Before the man could ask any further questions, Sasori asked one of his own, "How long will it take for her to wake up?"

The man sighed, a weary expression on his face, "It varies with each person. If she's strong enough, she should wake up within a couple of days."

Sasori just gave a nod to the man and then walked out of the room. He went back to the main desk and asked for some paper to write on. Once the woman gave him the things he needed, he moved to one of the chairs in the waiting area and began to write a note to Sakura.

When he finished he stood swiftly and ordered the woman to give the note to Sakura when she woke up, but forbid the woman to read it at all. He knew she'd do what he said; his threats were never taken lightly and the one he had given the woman at the desk was no exception.

He never slowed down as he made his way back to the outskirts of the village where he had left Deidara.

His thoughts were only of Sakura though, even as he waited for his partner to collect himself and follow after him into the desert beyond the Sand village.


	13. Chapter 13

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own 'Naruto' or anything remotely associated with the anime and manga. The only thing I can safely say I own is the idea behind this story and the Darkness village and ninja. So please, PLEASE don't badger me about owning 'Naruto' when I have just said I don't. When will the daft lawyers learn, eh? **

**Authoress' Note: The FINAL chapter is upon us all! I really didn't want to post this, hence the long wait I pull you all through. Plus, I thought for a long time about what I wanted Sasori's letter to say in it. After much deliberation, I settled on the piece of something-or-other that's in this chapter. Parts of it I am unhappy with, but then it hit me! I'm writing this story so to heck with anything that I think might not look right to someone else! It's already written now anyways...**

**Do leave a review, as this is the last chapter of this story. There will be a sequel, that'll revolve around the Shippuuden plot to begin with, but I want to keep Sasori alive so it'll eventually be a semi-AU. Anywho...READ ON!**

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**Chapter 13**

Sakura breathed in the cool air of her hometown, glad to be back in the Leaf village after so many days away from it. The villagers were all bustling about with their daily routines, while the ninja were either on their breaks or busy completing their missions and jobs. Nobody was standing quite as still and peacefully as Sakura was while she waited at the entrance of the village for her companions to catch up.

It was silly really. She had been escorted by Temari and a couple of ninja from the Sand village all the way back to the Leaf. After Gaara and everyone else had found out where Sakura had been for nearly a week, he almost volunteered to make certain that the pink-haired girl got back to her home. He wasn't able to, being the Kazekage, so Temari offered to go in his place with a small team.

Sakura didn't know why they even bothered though. She was not afraid to travel by herself to the Leaf village, even if it was a foolish decision. The fact of the matter was, she had wanted to go by herself on the off-chance that her new friend might show up.

Thinking of Sasori made her take the letter out that he had written to her back when she was still in the hospital. She gazed at the folded piece of paper and then opened it slowly and re-read the neatly printed words to herself.

"_Sakura,_

_If you're reading this it must mean that those pathetic morons in the hospital did not fail in their promise of keeping you alive and well. They must have taken my threats seriously, although I don't know why they wouldn't…_

_I'm not very good at this…caring…thing. I've had no need to bother with it before I met you. I still don't know if it was wise to let you live, but each time I thought of ending your life I felt…sad. Congratulations, you've proved your point! I'm still human after all._

_When you were in danger…I was worried…and afraid. I don't like those feelings, so you had better make sure that you don't ever get into a dangerous situation again!_

_Don't bother coming to find me though – that would be a very stupid thing to do. I'll probably be around from time to time, as long as nothing happens in the near future to prevent me from doing so. Not likely to happen anyway, nobody can best me or my puppets!_

_I know you have lots of questions for me, so if and when we cross paths again you can ask me as many as you want to. As I said before, I'll be around._

_I…enjoyed…our short time together. It was very different from anything I've had to do in a long time. I hope you won't ever forget those days, even if you ever learn of something…bad…about me._

_Now I sound like a stupid, soft, loser! Do you see what you have done to me Sakura?! I don't…hate…you for it though. Even if I…care…about you, I'm still the same person I've always been. Just more in touch with…feelings. I've heard some really strange stories of ruthless men completely changing their lives for a woman though, so I'm lucky I haven't. As if I would ever do something so ridiculous!_

_I can't remember the reason I wanted to write this letter now! I guess I'll add 'memory loss' to the list of things I can blame you for._

_…Now I remember! When I left you in the desert on your own, I was really angry and confused. Looking back I realise that I was being pathetic when I did that. I should not have left you alone so close to that forest. You got hurt because of me…I'm not apologising if that's what you think!!_

_Sakura, what I'm trying to say is…I want to take you up on your offer of friendship. It's a stupid, insane thing to say. We come from very different worlds, but I am willing to try being friends with you. I think I have gotten somewhat attached to you…_

_I'll tell you again – don't come looking for me. I'll come to you, when I can. It's easier, and safer, if we do this 'friendship' thing that way. Besides, you don't even know where I am, do you?_

_You showed me kindness, and fun, so I want to repay you…somehow. This 'being friends' idea seems the only way. That or killing you, but that is no longer an option._

_Don't mention my name to anyone. It's better if you keep quiet about me Sakura. You'll understand someday, I'm sure._

_Your …friend,_

_ Sasori"_

She smiled and folded the letter carefully into her pocket once more. Sakura wasn't entirely sure what he meant about not mentioning him to anyone else, but she knew he had a good reason. It wasn't like she really wanted to tell anyone else about him anyway. He was her little secret and he'd stay that way.

"Hey, Sakura, what's with the smile?"

Sakura turned to Temari, surprised to find the older woman standing right next to her with a raised eyebrow. She laughed nervously and just walked on ahead, not bothering to try and explain herself. She heard the blonde sigh and then heard her footsteps follow behind her with the other Sand ninja.

Sakura was grateful that Temari didn't push for anything and just left it at that; she didn't think she would be able to hide the truth from her if she had to lie. Temari was cunning and she would probably see through any deception that Sakura attempted. Not that she was actually any good at lying either.

"Sakura, we're going on ahead to the Hokage's tower to let her know that your back. I have to give a report as well, so I can kill two birds with one stone." Once again Temari had managed to walk beside Sakura without her noticing. It was a little unnerving that the blonde could do such a thing, but Sakura just chalked it up to her mind wondering too much and distracting her. "Take care now!"

And with that, the small group of Sand ninja jogged towards the stairs leading into the building. It was then that the pink-haired girl noticed how far she'd travelled. She was all the way on the other side of the village now!

With a quick glance around, the young ninja chose the road that would take her to the Ichiraku ramen stand and walked casually towards her destination. She had no idea why she wanted to eat some ramen, but she felt the need to. Her best friend would be back in less than two weeks time, so it wasn't like he was the reason she wanted ramen.

She really missed Naruto, but she had rarely thought about him while she was with Sasori. In fact, Sakura couldn't remember even thinking about Sasuke while she was in the Darkness village! All that had mattered was surviving and Sasori.

She remembered the way he had come back to save her from those evil ninja. His voice was menacing, but he didn't scare her one bit. At first Sakura had not trusted Sasori and had even been afraid of him. Now, however, she could only think good things about him and held no fear in her heart when she thought about him.

"I wonder when I'll see him again…"

She watched the clouds go by as she spoke those words, recalling the few days when she couldn't see any sky or clouds – but she hadn't been terribly unhappy. Because Sasori had been there. And now he wasn't anywhere nearby to make her day seem more interesting.

With a groan she realised she had once again been thinking too much and not paying enough attention to where her feet were going. She'd successfully gotten to the ramen stand and she'd been standing around for a good ten minutes looking like a total idiot.

Sakura sat down heavily into one of the seats and sighed as she ordered a plain bowl of ramen. She had never been one for the more exotic flavours; she left that up to Naruto to enjoy.

With a wistful glance at the seats to her left and right, she thought of what her friend would look like now. No doubt Naruto would have grown taller, but what would have changed about him? Would he still be the same annoying loud-mouth that she remembered? What if he had taken on some of Jiraiya's less favourable qualities? If that was the case, she'd kill the old man. Tsunade probably would too.

When her ramen was served, Sakura ate it slowly and let her thoughts flow gently through her mind.

When Naruto got back, they could go and rescue Sasuke from Orochimaru. Then they'd be a team again and things could return to the way they had been. Except, Sakura no longer felt the same way about Sasuke and she had a feeling that they would never be as close as they all used to be. Naruto had probably changed from how he was when he was a kid and Sakura had little doubt that Sasuke was completely different from what he used to be. Sakura herself had changed and now she was more mature in her thinking and less…annoying.

Sakura would admit that when she was younger she had been quite annoying and very foolish. But those days were gone and she was a much better person.

She also had more strength and determination than when she was twelve. If she didn't have those traits, she had little doubt that she would have even been in the situation at the Darkness village. If Sakura had been her old self then she would have surely done as Gaara had ordered and stayed in the Sand village. In stead, she had nearly gotten herself killed and met a very interesting person in the process. It was a fair trade in many ways; enter a life threatening situation and make a new friend.

"I must be crazy. Nobody thinks that nearly dying is a good enough way of getting a friend."

With a defeated sigh, Sakura slumped further into her seat on the stool and kept her eyes solely on the bowl of ramen in front of her. Once again a person had managed to sneak up on the young teenager, their body now sat next to her on another stool. The person didn't order anything and Sakura got the distinct impression that she was being stared at.

She looked up and nearly fell off her stool in shock.

"Hello again, Sakura."

After regaining her balance, Sakura gulped nervously at how close he was sitting. The 'he' was actually Sasori although he was wearing a completely black robe rather then one with red clouds adorning it as well. He also had a funny straw hat on his head that nearly covered his face if he wasn't tipping it slightly to look at her. In his eyes there was a small glimmer of amusement, clearly because he found her reaction funny in some way.

"Are you done with your food?"

His words came out so easily, whereas Sakura couldn't seem to find her voice. So she settled for a quick nod to answer his question, not entirely sure she could even form a simple 'yes'.

Sasori smirked at how nervous Sakura was being and then tugged on her arm to get her to follow him. The pink-haired girl left some money on the counter to pay for her food and then allowed the red-haired man to lead her somewhere less crowded and much quieter. Obviously he wanted to talk without being heard.

They eventually reached a small clearing near the route to the training fields, and Sasori finally let go of Sakura's arm as he turned to face her. Before he could speak, Sakura sat down on the grass and waited for the puppet master to do the same. It was with great reluctance that the red-head sat on the floor, not used to doing what someone else wanted and not comfortable with sitting down in somewhere he considered enemy territory.

When silence settled heavily on the two, the Leaf ninja decided to break it before she went crazy, "So…how've you been Sasori?"

His eyes drifted to meet her own green ones and he replied evenly, "Fine."

More silence.

"How does this 'friendship' thing work then?" Sasori asked the girl when he had fully decided on what he wished to say first.

She smiled at him and he narrowed his eyes slightly when she didn't answer his question.

"Sakura, I asked you a question, so answer it already."

At this the girl giggled and Sasori wondered just what was so amusing, "Would you quit laughing and just talk!"

"I'm sorry; it's just that you look so silly with that hat on your head. Can you take it off?"

He did so and then asked her his question again.

Sakura placed a single finger on her chin and thought about his question. To her it seemed like something silly to ask, but it wasn't as though Sasori had ever had any practice at being a friend before. So she had to try and work out how to explain such a basic concept to him. How did one explain friendship?

"I guess…being a friend means hanging out, sharing secrets, having fun and looking out for each other. I don't know how else to explain it really, since it's a normal thing for me to do."

A dark look crossed Sasori's face, "Right…'normal', which is why I would never understand it."

Sakura looked sadly at Sasori and then tried to think of another way to explain 'friendship' to him, "I suppose the simplest way of being someone else's friend is to just be yourself. It'll come naturally to you if you do that. That's how everyone learns to be someone else's friend."

The dark look faded and Sasori smirked once again, "I can do that."

"Good." She smiled at him and then looked at his robe, confused. He noticed her look. "Why are you wearing a different robe today? Or is this normal for you to change what you wear like everyone else?"

"Do you think I don't want to change my appearance every now and then? Besides, it's safer if I don't wear that thing around here."

This answer just confused Sakura even more, but she tucked the knowledge away safely into her mind as one the 'questions-to-ask-Sasori-at-a-later-date'.

"So, what made you want to visit so soon after I got back? I've only just been in the village for about an hour at the most. Did you miss me already?"

Sasori was reluctant to tell her what he was thinking, but after a look at her smiling face he gave in, "I've been following you since you left the Sand village, if you must know."

"You have? Then why didn't you just tell me you were there? I spent three whole days wondering what you were doing!" Her inner side began to surface, something that rarely ever happened anymore.

"I couldn't exactly reveal myself when you were being escorted by some Sand ninja. I don't want to have any unnecessary fights on my hands."

Once again, Sakura was confused by his words. From the things he was saying, she could easily assume that Sasori was not part of a village that was on friendly terms with the Leaf or the Sand. However, he didn't have any head band, so she couldn't tell what village it was. Add to all that she knew, she realised that the strange red-cloud coat he wore before probably indicated just what he was a part of. So…Sasori was…a…dangerous person then?

This knowledge disturbed Sakura, but she had to admit that it made a great deal of sense. From the way that he enjoyed to hurt other ninja, to his anger and attempt to kill her, Sakura realised that Sasori was probably the absolute worst person she could have wanted to befriend. Yet, she had done so.

Rather than continue to talk, they both just sat and watched the sky turn darker as evening gradually set in. When the insects and crickets started to come out, Sasori stood up and offered Sakura his hand to take. She did so and once more noticed how dead he felt compared with anyone else.

"I'm glad you came to see me today Sasori. Even though we didn't do much, it was still nice. Maybe some other time I could show you a better example of what friends do?"

He looked around cautiously and then turned his gaze to meet her eyes, "Yes, some other time. It won't be soon though, I'm afraid. I have…something important to do. Hopefully, we won't see each other while I'm doing this task."

She raised an elegant, pink eyebrow at him in question, but he didn't elaborate any further.

"Don't do anything stupid to get hurt while I'm gone, otherwise I might just have to hurt you further to make sure you never do it again." He nearly smiled, with just the barest twitches of the corner of his mouth and Sakura realised he was only joking. So she laughed softly at his attempt to be humorous.

Sasori carefully reached out with one of his hands and slightly touched Sakura's smiling face, but he withdrew his hand quickly before she even registered his touch. Then, with a small gesture that Sakura assumed was a wave, he disappeared into the darkening evening.

"That was…different."

Honestly, Sakura didn't know what to think of Sasori's actions, but she knew that he was still trying at being a friend to her. She sighed at how muddled her mind was and turned swiftly back towards the rest of the village. She stopped moving when she saw that Sasori had left his hat, so she picked it up and gently held it in her hands, marvelling at how something so simple could make Sasori look funny to her.

Taking great care not to damage the hat, Sakura made her way towards her home, looking forward to the future for so many different reasons, but at the forefront of her mind was seeing Sasori again - her new, confusing friend.

_**fin**_


End file.
